🧤 Will Schlager stop Spain? Austria keeper is like prime Neuer | OneFootball

The bad news: Austria were trailing Spain 0-1 after 45 minutes.

The good news: Austria were trailing Spain 0-1 after 45 minutes.

Because the truth is that the ÖFB side could easily have been facing a much bigger deficit against the 2024 European champions.

The fact that Austria can still dream of reaching the round of 16 is due almost entirely to goalkeeper Alexander Schlager. Against the overwhelmingly dominant Iberians, the keeper had already made five saves and in doing so prevented a total of 1.22 expected goals.

In the 33rd minute, Schlager denied a double chance from Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal. A few minutes later, he brilliantly tipped a direct free-kick from Alex Baena onto the crossbar. The Austrian keeper also came up big once again against Yamal.

But for Schlager’s saves to lead to success, the players in front of him will have to at least match his level...

And even that might not be enough. In the 66th minute, Pedro Porro made it 2-0 and seemingly put Spain in control.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 PATRICK T. FALLON - AFP or licensors