Austria beats Netherlands, reaches knockout stage as group winner ahead of France

Austria’s Marcel Sabitzer, front, celebrates after scoring his side’s third goal during a Group D match

Austria 3, Netherlands 2

Marcel Sabitzer scored late for Austria to advance to the knockout stage of the European Championship as group winner with a 3-2 victory over the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Austria topped Group D thanks to France drawing with Poland 1-1 in the other game. Both France and the Netherlands were already assured of progress thanks to results in other games.

“Group winner, group winner!” the Austrian fans chanted in the warm evening sunshine as they streamed out of Berlin’s Olympiastadion. Their Dutch counterparts, thousands of them dressed in vibrant orange, must now wait for the other groups to conclude to see which team awaits them in the next round.

Austria will play the second-place finisher in Group F — Turkey, Georgia or the Czech Republic — in Leipzig early today (Macau time).

“If you beat the Netherlands and finish first in the group, then you can’t be so bad,” said Sabitzer, who plays in Germany for Borussia Dortmund. “The top priority for us was to progress and we managed that. Now we need to bring it down a bit, get the heads clear, and then we’ll attack again.”

The Austrians had needed a point to be sure of advancing and got off to a great start with Dutch forward Donyell Malen scoring an own goal in the sixth minute.

First-half substitute Xavi Simons set up Cody Gapko to equalize two minutes after the break, but Romano Schmid headed Austria back in front in the 59th.

Memphis Depay equalized with a brilliant finish in the 75th, though he had to endure a VAR check as referee Ivan Kruzliak felt he handled the ball. The check found Depay hadn’t.

But Sabitzer restored Austria’s lead two minutes later with a fierce strike from a difficult angle.

It proved to be the winner despite a frenetic finale with chances at both ends.

Austria snapped a seven-game losing run against the Netherlands, including a group-stage defeat in the last edition of the tournament.

It was exactly 36 years to the day since the Netherlands won Euro ‘88 in Munich. CIARÁN FAHEY, BERLIN, MDT/AP