By Habeeb Akinfegbe
In 2003, the Portuguese Football Federation hired Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led Portugal to the final of UEFA Euro 2004, a tournament hosted in Portugal, where they lost to Greece, and to their second World Cup semi-final in the 2006 World Cup finishing fourth place. Scolari left after Euro 2008 and was replaced by Carlos Queiroz. He led Portugal to the second round of the 2010 World Cup before they were defeated by the eventual champions Spain. Because of poor results in the games that would follow, Queiroz was fired and the Federation hired ex-Sporting Clube de Portugal coach Paulo Bento, who led the national team to the semi-finals of Euro 2012, where they were defeated by eventual champions Spain in the penalty shootout after a 0–0 result during regular and extra time. Portugal was seen as a major contender to win Euro 2008, though qualification
to the final stages was not easy: Portugal finished second in their
group behind Poland, and qualified for the final stage. Their first two
games were against Turkey and the Czech Republic, 2–0 and 3–1 victories respectively. In their third match, against co-hosts Switzerland,
however, they lost 2–0, setting up a quarter-final matchup with Germany.
Portugal played Germany, and were beaten 2–3, knocked out at the
quarterfinal stage. Scolari announced that it was his last spell as the
Portuguese manager, ending a five-year era. A fairly poor first two games during qualifying for Euro 2012 prompted
the sacking of coach Queiroz. Coach Paulo Bento took over, and the team
qualified. For the tournament, Portugal was placed in group B along with
Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Despite losing their first game
against Germany 1–0, Portugal bounced back with wins against Denmark 3–2
and the Netherlands 2–1 to finish second in the group and qualify for
the knockout phase. Portugal defeated the Czech Republic 1–0 in the
quarter-finals, but lost to eventual champions Spain in the semi-finals
on penalties.
While historically one of Europe's minnows, Iceland have enjoyed more success since the end of the 20th century. In the qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Iceland reached the play-offs before losing to Croatia. Iceland reached its first major tournament, UEFA Euro 2016, after a qualification campaign which included home and away wins over the Netherlands. In a friendly against Estonia on 24 April 1996 in Tallinn, Eiður Guðjohnsen entered as a substitute for his father Arnór. This marked the first time that a father and son played in the same international match.
The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association. Austria has qualified for seven World Cups, most recently in 1998. The country played in the European Championship for the first time in 2008 when it co-hosted the event with Switzerland and most recently qualified in 2016.
Austria qualified automatically for the 2008 European Championships as co-hosts. Their first major tournament in a decade, most commentators regarded them as outsiders and whipping-boys for Germany, Croatia and Poland in the group stage. Many of their home supporters were in agreement and 10,000 Austrians signed a petition demanding that Austria withdraw from the tournament to spare the nation's embarrassment. However, Austria performed better than expected. They managed a 1–1 draw with Poland, gave the Croatians a hard time before losing 1–0 to a Luka Modrić penalty and defended valiantly against the Germans but Michael Ballack's free kick sealed the game in a 1–0 defeat. Shortly after Austria's first-round exit from the tournament, Hickersberger resigned as the national team coach. Karel Brückner, who had resigned as head coach of the Czech Republic after that country's first round exit from Euro 2008, was soon named as his replacement. After only eight months Brückner was released in March 2009 and the position was subsequently taken by Didi Constantini. Even though Austria did not manage to secure automatic qualification or a play-off spot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, under Brückner they still managed a memorable 3–1 win over France during qualifying, which was also France's only defeat in qualifying. In the qualifying campaign for UEFA Euro 2012 the Austrians played against Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Turkey and Germany. Despite playing against the Germans, it wasn't perceived as one of the most difficult groups, since Turkey and Belgium, the main contenders for the play-off spot, both struggled in the previous World Cup qualifiers. Austria started fairly well, beating the group's two weakest teams, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, both wins being at home. It was followed with an exciting match in Belgium, which ended in a bizarre 4–4 score, what was seen as a good result for Das Team, as it meant that it had gone through all qualifiers in 2010 unbeaten. However, in March 2011, the Austrians' luck took a turn for the worse, as Belgium went to Vienna and recovered the points missed at home with a deserved 2–0 win, courtesy of an Axel Witsel double. The defeat in the head-to-head clash at home set the tone for remaining matches as Austria was again defeated four days later, this time in Turkey, another crucial match. In June, the Austrians faced a must-win against Germany. Austria played bravely, but was once again defeated, this time in injury time, Mario Gómez scoring the winning goal in a 2–1 defeat. In the return leg, the team was crushed by Germany in an impressive 6–2 score. At that point, the mathematics hopes for even a top-two finish effectively ended. Despite those four straight defeats, Austria finished the campaign unbeaten in the last three matches, drawing against Turkey (at home) and Kazakhstan (away), and recording a sounding 4–1 win in Azerbaijan (away).
Over the past 2 years, the Austrian team has seen a major renaissance. A number of players from the 2007 U-20 team that finished 4th in the World Cup that year have ended up developing and becoming full starters for the squad. These players include Sebastian Prödl, Markus Suttner, Martin Harnik, Veli Kavlak, Erwin Hoffer, Zlatko Junuzović and Rubin Okotie. The new generation of young and talented Austrian footballers has helped begin a new era in Austrian football after a previous decade in the abyss. The team failed to qualify for the 2014 tournament in Brazil, but finished in 3rd place with a respectable 5–2–3 record with 17 points and a +10 goal difference; there were a number of quality results, such as home victories over the Republic of Ireland and Sweden, as well as a narrow home defeat to Germany and a 2–2 draw in Ireland, as well as losing a hard-fought 1–2 game in Sweden. The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign has been even more successful. Again, the Austrians battled and drew with the Swedes 1–1. Austria also recorded a pair of quality victories over Moldova (2–1 in Chisinau) and Montenegro (1–0 in Vienna) before achieving one of the finest moments in Austrian football since the team last qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 1997 with a 1–0 victory over Russia in front of a packed crowd in Vienna. Okotie scored the deciding goal in the closing 20 minutes of the game after a previous Austrian goal a minute before was controversially disallowed. The Austrians played a friendly game against vaunted Brazil a few days later, but would battle the Samba Kings before falling to a late goal by Roberto Firmino in a 2–1 loss. The Austrians good fortunes continued in 2015. Austria won comfortably against Liechtenstein 5–0, before facing a true test of their strength in Moscow in a key match against Russia. Despite the heavy pressure, the Austrians were able to come away with an impressive victory, courtesy of a goal by Marc Janko in the 33rd minute; the Austrians held on, edging closer to the Euros. In their next fixture against Moldova, despite the heavy pressure to win, the Austrians escaped with a narrow home victory over Moldova, securing at least a playoff spot for next year's competition. On 8 September 2015 a 4–1 win over Sweden secured Austria's place at UEFA Euro 2016.
Hungary has a respectable football history, having won three Olympic titles, finishing runners-up in the 1938 and 1954 FIFA World Cups, and third in the 1964 UEFA European Football Championship. Hungary revolutionised the sport in the 1950s, laying the tactical fundamentals of Total Football and dominating international football with the remarkable Golden Team which included legend Ferenc Puskás, top goalscorer of the 20th century, whom FIFA dedicated its newest award, the Puskás Award. The side of that era has the second all-time highest Football Elo Ranking in the world, with 2166 in 1954, and one of the longest undefeated runs in football history, remaining unbeaten in 31 games, spanning over 4 years and including matches such as the Match of the Century.
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In 2003, the Portuguese Football Federation hired Luiz Felipe Scolari, who led Portugal to the final of UEFA Euro 2004, a tournament hosted in Portugal, where they lost to Greece, and to their second World Cup semi-final in the 2006 World Cup finishing fourth place. Scolari left after Euro 2008 and was replaced by Carlos Queiroz. He led Portugal to the second round of the 2010 World Cup before they were defeated by the eventual champions Spain. Because of poor results in the games that would follow, Queiroz was fired and the Federation hired ex-Sporting Clube de Portugal coach Paulo Bento, who led the national team to the semi-finals of Euro 2012, where they were defeated by eventual champions Spain in the penalty shootout after a 0–0 result during regular and extra time. Portugal was seen as a major contender to win Euro 2008, though qualification
to the final stages was not easy: Portugal finished second in their
group behind Poland, and qualified for the final stage. Their first two
games were against Turkey and the Czech Republic, 2–0 and 3–1 victories respectively. In their third match, against co-hosts Switzerland,
however, they lost 2–0, setting up a quarter-final matchup with Germany.
Portugal played Germany, and were beaten 2–3, knocked out at the
quarterfinal stage. Scolari announced that it was his last spell as the
Portuguese manager, ending a five-year era. A fairly poor first two games during qualifying for Euro 2012 prompted
the sacking of coach Queiroz. Coach Paulo Bento took over, and the team
qualified. For the tournament, Portugal was placed in group B along with
Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. Despite losing their first game
against Germany 1–0, Portugal bounced back with wins against Denmark 3–2
and the Netherlands 2–1 to finish second in the group and qualify for
the knockout phase. Portugal defeated the Czech Republic 1–0 in the
quarter-finals, but lost to eventual champions Spain in the semi-finals
on penalties.While historically one of Europe's minnows, Iceland have enjoyed more success since the end of the 20th century. In the qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Iceland reached the play-offs before losing to Croatia. Iceland reached its first major tournament, UEFA Euro 2016, after a qualification campaign which included home and away wins over the Netherlands. In a friendly against Estonia on 24 April 1996 in Tallinn, Eiður Guðjohnsen entered as a substitute for his father Arnór. This marked the first time that a father and son played in the same international match.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Czech Republic |
10 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 19 | 14 | +5 | 22 | Qualify for final tournament | — | 2–1 | 0–2 | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1–1 | |
| 2 | Iceland |
10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 17 | 6 | +11 | 20 | 2–1 | — | 3–0 | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–2 | ||
| 3 | Turkey |
10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 9 | +5 | 18 | 1–2 | 1–0 | — | 3–0 | 3–1 | 1–1 | ||
| 4 | Netherlands |
10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 17 | 14 | +3 | 13 | 2–3 | 0–1 | 1–1 | — | 3–1 | 6–0 | ||
| 5 | Kazakhstan |
10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 18 | −11 | 5 | 2–4 | 0–3 | 0–1 | 1–2 | — | 0–0 | ||
| 6 | Latvia |
10 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 19 | −13 | 5 | 1–2 | 0–3 | 1–1 | 0–2 | 0–1 | — |
The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association. Austria has qualified for seven World Cups, most recently in 1998. The country played in the European Championship for the first time in 2008 when it co-hosted the event with Switzerland and most recently qualified in 2016. Austria qualified automatically for the 2008 European Championships as co-hosts. Their first major tournament in a decade, most commentators regarded them as outsiders and whipping-boys for Germany, Croatia and Poland in the group stage. Many of their home supporters were in agreement and 10,000 Austrians signed a petition demanding that Austria withdraw from the tournament to spare the nation's embarrassment. However, Austria performed better than expected. They managed a 1–1 draw with Poland, gave the Croatians a hard time before losing 1–0 to a Luka Modrić penalty and defended valiantly against the Germans but Michael Ballack's free kick sealed the game in a 1–0 defeat. Shortly after Austria's first-round exit from the tournament, Hickersberger resigned as the national team coach. Karel Brückner, who had resigned as head coach of the Czech Republic after that country's first round exit from Euro 2008, was soon named as his replacement. After only eight months Brückner was released in March 2009 and the position was subsequently taken by Didi Constantini. Even though Austria did not manage to secure automatic qualification or a play-off spot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, under Brückner they still managed a memorable 3–1 win over France during qualifying, which was also France's only defeat in qualifying. In the qualifying campaign for UEFA Euro 2012 the Austrians played against Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Turkey and Germany. Despite playing against the Germans, it wasn't perceived as one of the most difficult groups, since Turkey and Belgium, the main contenders for the play-off spot, both struggled in the previous World Cup qualifiers. Austria started fairly well, beating the group's two weakest teams, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, both wins being at home. It was followed with an exciting match in Belgium, which ended in a bizarre 4–4 score, what was seen as a good result for Das Team, as it meant that it had gone through all qualifiers in 2010 unbeaten. However, in March 2011, the Austrians' luck took a turn for the worse, as Belgium went to Vienna and recovered the points missed at home with a deserved 2–0 win, courtesy of an Axel Witsel double. The defeat in the head-to-head clash at home set the tone for remaining matches as Austria was again defeated four days later, this time in Turkey, another crucial match. In June, the Austrians faced a must-win against Germany. Austria played bravely, but was once again defeated, this time in injury time, Mario Gómez scoring the winning goal in a 2–1 defeat. In the return leg, the team was crushed by Germany in an impressive 6–2 score. At that point, the mathematics hopes for even a top-two finish effectively ended. Despite those four straight defeats, Austria finished the campaign unbeaten in the last three matches, drawing against Turkey (at home) and Kazakhstan (away), and recording a sounding 4–1 win in Azerbaijan (away).
Over the past 2 years, the Austrian team has seen a major renaissance. A number of players from the 2007 U-20 team that finished 4th in the World Cup that year have ended up developing and becoming full starters for the squad. These players include Sebastian Prödl, Markus Suttner, Martin Harnik, Veli Kavlak, Erwin Hoffer, Zlatko Junuzović and Rubin Okotie. The new generation of young and talented Austrian footballers has helped begin a new era in Austrian football after a previous decade in the abyss. The team failed to qualify for the 2014 tournament in Brazil, but finished in 3rd place with a respectable 5–2–3 record with 17 points and a +10 goal difference; there were a number of quality results, such as home victories over the Republic of Ireland and Sweden, as well as a narrow home defeat to Germany and a 2–2 draw in Ireland, as well as losing a hard-fought 1–2 game in Sweden. The UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying campaign has been even more successful. Again, the Austrians battled and drew with the Swedes 1–1. Austria also recorded a pair of quality victories over Moldova (2–1 in Chisinau) and Montenegro (1–0 in Vienna) before achieving one of the finest moments in Austrian football since the team last qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 1997 with a 1–0 victory over Russia in front of a packed crowd in Vienna. Okotie scored the deciding goal in the closing 20 minutes of the game after a previous Austrian goal a minute before was controversially disallowed. The Austrians played a friendly game against vaunted Brazil a few days later, but would battle the Samba Kings before falling to a late goal by Roberto Firmino in a 2–1 loss. The Austrians good fortunes continued in 2015. Austria won comfortably against Liechtenstein 5–0, before facing a true test of their strength in Moscow in a key match against Russia. Despite the heavy pressure, the Austrians were able to come away with an impressive victory, courtesy of a goal by Marc Janko in the 33rd minute; the Austrians held on, edging closer to the Euros. In their next fixture against Moldova, despite the heavy pressure to win, the Austrians escaped with a narrow home victory over Moldova, securing at least a playoff spot for next year's competition. On 8 September 2015 a 4–1 win over Sweden secured Austria's place at UEFA Euro 2016.
Hungary has a respectable football history, having won three Olympic titles, finishing runners-up in the 1938 and 1954 FIFA World Cups, and third in the 1964 UEFA European Football Championship. Hungary revolutionised the sport in the 1950s, laying the tactical fundamentals of Total Football and dominating international football with the remarkable Golden Team which included legend Ferenc Puskás, top goalscorer of the 20th century, whom FIFA dedicated its newest award, the Puskás Award. The side of that era has the second all-time highest Football Elo Ranking in the world, with 2166 in 1954, and one of the longest undefeated runs in football history, remaining unbeaten in 31 games, spanning over 4 years and including matches such as the Match of the Century.
| UEFA European Football Championship record | UEFA European Football Championship qualification record | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | Position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA |
 1960 |
Did Not Qualify | FR | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||||||
 1964 |
Third Place | 3rd | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | QF | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 8 |
 1968 |
Did Not Qualify | QF | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 8 | |||||||
 1972 |
Fourth Place | 4th | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | QF | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 17 | 9 |
 1976 |
Did Not Qualify | 2nd | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 8 | |||||||
| 1980 |
2nd | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 9 | ||||||||
| 1984 |
4th | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 18 | 17 | ||||||||
 1988 |
3rd | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 13 | 11 | ||||||||
 1992 |
4th | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 9 | ||||||||
 1996 |
4th | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 13 | ||||||||
| 2000 |
4th | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 10 | ||||||||
 2004 |
4th | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 15 | 9 | ||||||||
  2008 |
6th | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 22 | ||||||||
  2012 |
3rd | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 22 | 14 | ||||||||
| 2016 |
Qualified | P/O | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 10 | |||||||
| Total | Third Place | 3/15 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | Total | 121 | 52 | 26 | 43 | 197 | 161 |
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