Austria vs Germany prediction: WORLD: Friendly International betting tips on match 2023-11-20 19:45.
With Euro 2024 qualification Group F completed, Austria can now officially turn their attention to the showpiece tournament next summer, having finished second in their group behind Belgium. Despite wrapping up qualification well before the final group game, the Austrians closed the campaign out with a clinical 2-0 win over Estonia, extending an impressive run of form that earned eight victories from their last 11 matches (D2, L1).
Ralf Rangnick's men will feature in a third consecutive European Championships in 2024, and will get a taste of that high profile action early when they finish 2023 with a friendly at home to tournament hosts Germany. They’ll be keen to emulate the feats of the Austrian side who last faced the Germans, winning 2-1 back in June 2018 and snapping what was a nine-game losing streak against their European neighbours in the process.
Germany will just want to get back to winning ways after suffering an enormously frustrating year of international friendlies. The Euro 2024 hosts have lost half of their ten games in 2023 (W3, D2, L5) despite being the pre-match favourites on every single occasion, most recently going down 3-2 at home to Turkey. Perhaps most worryingly, it was a ninth consecutive match in which they failed to keep a clean sheet (average 2.2 goals conceded per game).
The four-time World Cup and three-time European Championship winners will need to ensure they clean up their act before next summer, or risk suffering a similar fate to the group stage exits of the last two World Cups, or the Round of 16 elimination experienced at Euro 2020. Manager Julian Nagelsmann will be eager to ease any German nerves with a win here, and will be looking to leverage his experience of working with Rangnick at RB Leipzig to his advantage.
Players to watch: Konrad Laimer seems to have made a habit of getting his team going, since three of his four Austrian goals have served as his side’s opener. As for Germany, their success may lie in the hands of Niclas Füllkrug who has scored a memorable nine goals in his first 11 international appearances, with the last three all arriving within the first 15 minutes of the second half.
Hot stat: There were goals scored across both halves in eight of Germany’s last 11 matches.