"Wenn man bedenkt, wer heute nicht dabei war, macht es das noch so viel wertvoller, dass wir vor dem letzten Spiel alles klar gemacht haben."
"Considering who was missing today, it makes it so much more valuable that we wrapped everything up before the final matchday," said an impressed Rangnick, who had to do without key leaders like Marcel Sabitzer, David Alaba, and Xaver Schlager for this training camp.
Overall, "eleven players were missing today, at least seven of whom would probably have been in the starting eleven had they been fit," the 67-year-old stated.
He emphasized: "I am proud of what the boys delivered out there today."
"Often too jittery"
Admittedly, the clash in Linz will not go down in history as one of the best ÖFB matches of all time.
Following an opening 15 minutes that Rangnick quite liked, "we somewhat lost the thread because, after winning possession, we didn't play as cleanly as we should have. We had a number of turnovers, which allowed Ireland to get into the game better," Rangnick analyzed.
Speaking to "ORF", he added: "After winning the ball, we were often too jittery, too nervous, and gave away balls we shouldn't have lost. We addressed that at halftime."
Strong response in the second half
The ÖFB team emerged from the break vastly improved. "We completely dominated the first half-hour," Rangnick felt.
"We could have decided the game earlier," the 67-year-old said, alluding to the two missed golden opportunities by returning ÖFB forward Christoph Baumgartner.
Ultimately, it fell to substitute Sasa Kalajdzic to make the difference. Rangnick threw the local hero from Linz into the contest after about an hour as a second striker alongside Michael Gregoritsch, signaling an all-out push for victory.
"The goal was a copy of the Algeria game"
The breakthrough came in the 78th minute: following a corner from Schmid, the ball reached Gregoritsch, who headed it across the face of goal where Kalajdzic was in the right place at the right time.
"In a way, the goal was a copy of the Algeria game. Back then, there was also a ball to the far post and then the header from 'Gregerl'," Rangnick said, recalling Austria's final group-stage match at the 2026 World Cup.
Finally another clean sheet
Subsequently, the Irish naturally threw caution to the wind and "there were eight corners plus three long throws that felt just like corners," said Rangnick.
Yet the ÖFB team stood firm against the Irish giants to keep their first clean sheet since a 1-0 friendly win over Tunisia in June. In competitive fixtures, Austria's last shutout had come exactly a year ago against Cyprus in World Cup qualifying.
"Finally kept a clean sheet again!" Rangnick celebrated afterwards in his "ORF" interview.
"Compared to that, today's first half was magnificent"
In the end, the German coach was delighted with a victory over a side "made up mainly of players from the Premier League, the Championship, or Real Betis." It was also an opponent against whom, just over a month ago with a nominally stronger lineup, Austria had looked considerably worse.
"You can't forget that we were 2-0 down in Dublin. Compared to that, today's first half was magnificent," said the head coach, refusing to overstate the room for improvement shown in Linz's opening 45 minutes.
Team spirit is high
The performance after the restart did not surprise him, "because you could already feel in training that the lads were going full throttle and ready to give everything. You saw that in the match as well."
Overall, Rangnick can already celebrate a thoroughly successful training camp—well beyond just the on-pitch success: "Over the last few days, you could feel a great energy in training as well as over shared meals. There was true togetherness. The youngsters who newly joined were looked after really well."
