After Austria's 0-3 defeat to Spain in the World Cup Round of 16, which eliminated his team from the tournament, Austria manager Rangnick attended a press conference. What follows is the first part of that press conference.

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Manager, looking back not just at this match but at Austria's entire World Cup campaign, how do you assess the team's overall performance? Are you satisfied? Do you feel you could have achieved better results? Do you feel something was missing at the end?

Well, I can only repeat what I've said before. We already knew on December 14th last year, on the night of the group draw, that we had been placed in the most difficult group of all. We also knew that to advance, statistically we could only finish second or third in the group. And to avoid Spain, the winner of another group, we understood that we needed to finish either first or third in our group. As you know, finishing third became theoretically impossible after our final match against Algeria. So it was clear that a match against Spain was highly likely.

Moreover, anyone who watched today's match live, not just on television at home, would have to admit something. Against such an opponent, it's pointless to hope for mistakes or, in tennis terms, unforced errors. Because they simply don't make them. I can't recall them making a single unforced error today. While we were still in the match—just as we were down 0-2 against Argentina before—there was still plenty of potential for the game to shift. But not against Spain today.

Spain demonstrated absolutely their best performance of the tournament today. And I would dare to say we not only faced the current European Championship winners today, but the future FIFA World Cup winners as well. I wouldn't be surprised if that comes to pass. If they play like this, then someone would first have to find a way to beat this Spanish team before they could beat anyone else.

Again, we were in the match until it was 0-2. If we'd had a fortunate goal, we might have had a chance to equalize. We had one truly great chance when it was 0-0—Gregoritsch's header. Unfortunately, his positioning wasn't quite right at that moment, otherwise we would have taken the lead.

But what can you say? Overall, the team showed tremendous cohesion once again. And it was clear we had to overcome many obstacles. We were without Christoph Baumgartner, without Philipp Mwene, and today Stefan Posch suffered a clear jaw fracture—an unexpected situation. Without all available medical support, he normally wouldn't have been able to continue playing. So there were several things that didn't make our task any easier. But again, we faced a truly unique opponent today. And competing evenly with them for 90 minutes was extremely difficult.

Manager, hello. Yesterday you said Austria needed to take a step forward against Spain and push the boundaries. Today, was it a failure on the team's part, or did Spain simply not give you the chance? Was Spain too strong today? Did Spain completely prevent your team from touching the ball, or couldn't Austria play any better than they did today for some reason?

Yes, I believe I've already answered this question in great detail. Repeating exactly the same words now probably wouldn't add much. You only need to look at who Spain fielded today—or rather, the players they didn't field. I can only repeat what I said yesterday: this Spanish team doesn't include a single Real Madrid player. And yet they put on a performance like this. That tells you something about the strength of this Spanish team.

Lamine Yamal was officially named Man of the Match. Can you comment on that? Do you agree with this decision? Considering that Oyarzabal scored twice and Kucka provided two assists and set things in motion, what do you make of it? And doesn't this kind of decision spoil a young player, given he didn't do anything decisive on the pitch? On another note, what's your take on the water breaks?

A decision? Which decision are you talking about?

The decision to name Yamal Man of the Match?

Lamine Yamal is an outstanding talent, and considering his age, one of the finest talents currently alive. We already knew that. Nevertheless, I thought we defended against him quite well. With Coni—Laimer—constantly supporting Sabitzer, and with one of our number 6 players providing additional support, we actually managed to stop him repeatedly. Of course, it's impossible to completely shut him down for 90 minutes. As for who gets named Man of the Match, frankly, I don't pay much attention to it, and I don't know the player well enough to assess what kind of impact it might have on him. Besides, there are still many matches ahead for him and his team in this World Cup.

Was there another question? About the break, yes. I think I've answered that at least four times already. Water breaks exist and will probably continue to exist at future European Championships and World Cups. Personally, as a coach, I don't see them as a bad thing. They give us another opportunity to emphasize certain points and, if needed, correct things. So I see it as a positive. In other team sports like handball and volleyball, timeouts are completely normal, so there's nothing unusual about it now. To be honest, as a coach, I tend to view such breaks positively—not just for drinking water, but as a chance to communicate with the team again.

AI翻訳。

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