Austria have put themselves in a strong position in FIFA World Cup 26™ qualifying, with maximum points at the halfway stage of the group. Now a match awaits on 9 September against Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have won all four of their games.
It promises to be a real test for Ralf Rangnick’s charges, but their development has been going in the right direction for some time now. The Austrians look solid and showed at EURO 2024, when they took down the Netherlands, that they can upset the big boys.
Werder Bremen midfield maestro Romano Schmid is one of several Bundesliga players who are fixtures in Rangnick’s squad. In this interview with FIFA, Schmid talks about Austria’s current state and their hopes to be one of the 48 teams at the global showpiece in 2026.
Romano Schmid: It was a very, very difficult game. I think the Cypriots put in a really good performance. They have very good individual players and got their tactics spot on. But we kept at it, carried on pushing and finally got our reward, so I think we deserved the win.
Yes, definitely. Of course, every international match is very, very difficult because the opponents always have their qualities. But we’re in good spirits, and I think we’re a very consistent team.
I think every match is similar, even in this group, and that’s why there’s so much anticipation around it. We know the quality of our opponents, but we’re confident that we’ll put up a good fight.
I know a lot of their players from having played against them, and I’ve also played with one or two myself. They are simply very, very good footballers who have a huge amount of national pride. That’s why it’ll be a difficult game against very strong opposition, but we’re also a tight-knit team and we’re really looking forward to the match.
The atmosphere is good. Everyone treats each other well and that’s very important, especially in a national team. The competition is also good. We’ve all known each other for a long time and that’s why it’s like a little family, not just with a competitive mindset, but also a real sense of togetherness.
We’ll approach the match as we always do. We want to play our own game, play full-throttle football, sprint a lot and put our opponents under pressure when they have the ball. In other words, we want to play to our strengths.
So much! There’s nothing bigger, especially at national-team level, but also in football in general. It’s also been a very long time since we were at the World Cup. That’s huge for everyone in the team – everyone wants to be there.
Yes, but this is a different competition. Everything started all over again three games ago, but it’s true that there was a huge sense of euphoria at the European Championship. It’s also fair to say that we’ve shown we have many, many players who can and do play at a top level. And that’s why the euphoria is also there for us now, because we can say, “We’ve beaten very good teams and can hold our own.” That’s also our goal in the future: we want to carry on in the same vein and try to assert ourselves against everyone we face.
