Austria had spent the buildup to this game batting away concerns that they might inflict another Anschluss on their rivals and the watching public, but they duly disabused everybody of that notion. There had been a temptation to wonder whether they and Ukraine might play out a draw that would see both through to the last 16, evoking memories of their famous entente with West Germany in 1982. Perhaps they did not get the memo: instead they offered a vigorous, insistent performance and deserved more than the Christoph Baumgartner goal that ensured they beat Andriy Shevchenko’s desperately disappointing team to second spot in Group C. Given they face a rampant Italy at Wembley next, they may come to regret their honesty; at least they have made it that far, though, while Ukraine’s prospects hang by a thread until the ranking of third-placed contenders shakes down.
This was an unrecognisable Austria side to the one that had barely made any impression upon the onlooker in losing to the Netherlands. It was a very different Ukraine to that which gave the group winners an altogether wilder ride, too, and such a marked switch in personalities made for a one-sided contest in which Austria should have been virtually out of sight by half-time.
