Austria secure quarter-final place with narrow win over Norway | OneFootball

For the second consecutive UEFA Women’s EURO, Norway have been dumped out of the competition at the group stage.

Despite an impressive opening game against Northern Ireland, losses to England and Austria have brought their tournament to an abrupt end.

Norway came out strongly against Austria in Brighton this evening, dominating possession in the early minutes but by 20 minutes in, they were struggling to get out of their own half. In these opening exchanges, neither side looked particularly likely to score but just after the half-hour mark, Austria looked more threatening as Nicole Billa went though on goal. She ran herself into a difficult angle and Norwegian keeper Guro Pettersen was able to keep the ball out.

Just a few minutes later, Billa made up for her miss as she rose to head the ball into the back of the net from Verena Hanshaw’s looping delivery into the box. Austria only needed a draw and now they were really in the driving seat. They remained the better side until half-time.

The second half started a little more evenly with both sides having attacks, though Austria had the best chances with Arsenal’s Manuela Zinsberger left untroubled in their goal. Irene Fuhrmann’s side should have doubled their lead with 20 minutes to go as the ball came through to the back post but Pettersen was able to scuffle it out for a corner.

With 10 minutes to go, Norway stepped up the pace but Zinsberger was equal to the task, coming to collect the ball from on rushing attackers before tipping a Celin Bizet Ildhusøy effort over the bar, The Norwegian substitute had brought renewed vigour to her side’s attack but was ultimately unable to change the score.

Austria’s reward for a disciplined performance is a quarter-final against Germany on Thursday night. For Norway, there are bound to be questions asked in the aftermath of a second exit before the quarter-final stage, especially given the talent within their team.