Inter striker Marko Arnautovic was crucial as Austria beat Wojciech Szczesny’s Poland 3-1 to give themselves a chance of qualifying for the EURO 2024 knockouts.
Both sides lost their opening fixtures in Group D, with the Netherlands and France, so the pressure was on to get off the mark. Robert Lewandowski was still only fit for the bench, so former Milan striker Krzysztof Piatek started upfront with Serie A players including Szczesny, Piotr Zielinski, Nicola Zalewski and Pawel Dawidowicz. Inter centre-forward Arnautovic was leading the line for Austria with Bologna defender Stefan Posch.
It was an aggressive start from Austria and they took the lead with a Gernot Trauner header at the near top corner on the pull-back from Philipp Mwene.
Poland had the chance to equalise only for Roma winger Zalewski to balloon over from 14 yards, but Piatek did score after the original Bednarek effort was charged down.
Napoli midfielder Zielinski forced a great save with his free kick, but Christoph Baumgartner restored Austria’s lead after a splendid dummy from Arnautovic created the space.
Szczesny caught Marcel Sabitzer for a penalty, which was converted by a visibly emotional Arnautovic.
Bologna defender Posch almost scored a stunning curler from the edge of the area, denied by an even more impressive Szczesny fingertip save.
Poland 1-3 Austria
Trauner 9 (A), Piatek 30 (P), Baumgartner 67 (A), Arnautovic pen 79 (A)
Player statistic
| 9' |  |
Gernot Trauner (Assist: Phillipp Mwene) | ||
| Krzysztof Piatek | |
30' |
| Bartosz Slisz |  |
53' | ||
| 56' | |
Patrick Wimmer | ||
| Jakub Moder | |
62' | ||
| Robert Lewandowski | |
64' | ||
| 66' | |
Christoph Baumgartner (Assist: Alexander Prass) | ||
| 70' | |
Marko Arnautovic | ||
| Wojciech Szczesny | |
77' | ||
| 78' |  |
Marko Arnautovic |
Match statistic
