"Austria 1-1 Poland"

Austria scored an injury time penalty to earn a 1-1 draw with Poland and preserve their little hope of qualifying for the knockout phase of Euro 2008.

Josef Hickersberger's side had a trailer Roger Guerreiro first half goal scored against the run of play, and the Poles must have thought he had done enough to take all three points until the referee Howard Webb pointed to the march.

Austria began the match at a furious pace, showing that it does not look so far a spirit of adventure, as they tore into the lackadaisical Poles. Indeed, were it not for the excellent reflexes of goalkeeper Artur Boruca, the co-hosts might well have been up three goals in the first fifteen minutes.

Boruca was called into action on 11 minutes when Austria broke the offside trap Polish weak, but Martin Harnik saw his shot pushed wide. Two minutes Harnik missed an opportunity easier, even after being set up by the lively Umit Korkmaz - again Boruca was responsible for pulling off the save. Moments later it was the turn of Christoph Leitgeb to be denied by Boruca after being across goal.

Given their complete domination and its inability to seize the opportunities that came his way, there was a sense of inevitablity on Poland to the head. For the Poles' first meaningful attack of the half, the ball came to Marek Saganowski and his cross was rejected in the way of Guerreiro, who converted from close range.

It seemed a murderer coup in Austria and then they struggled to regain the enthusiasm that has characterized his previous game. Gradually, as the game took in Poland is expected to face more composed and Guerreiro produce some neat touches, who expected much more likely scorers in the second half.

Austria keeper Macho is put into action on several occasions, pulling a double save to deny Jacek Bak and Mariusz Lewandowski. Shortly thereafter, Macho was forced to make a acrobatic save to tip over a thunderous free-kick from Jacek Krzynowek.

With Austria seemingly lack of ideas and Poland control the game, there seemed no way back for the co-hosts. However, with just seconds remaining, Webb discovered Marcin Wasilewski tugging the shirt and said Sebastian Prodl immediately to the scene.

Substitute Vastic was happy to grab the lifeline and he hammered home the place kick to earn his side, which in the balance of play was a deserved point.

Polish coach Leo Beenhakker Strode on the pitch to confront Webb at the end of the game, but by then the damage had been done.

The result means that both sides have a theoretical chance of reaching the last eight, although in this way, although the team is capable of making, remains a moot point.



Group B
Austria Poland 1-1

Annotation:
Austria: Ivica Vastic 90 +3 pen
Poland: Roger Guerreiro 30

Half-time: 0-1

Attendance: 51,428

Teams:
Austria: Juergen Macho 21-, 14-Gyorgy Garics, 15-Sebastian Proedl, 3-Martin Stranzl, 4-Emanuel Pogatetz; 8-Christoph Leitgeib, 6-Rene Aufhauser (19-Juergen Saeumel 74), 10-Andreas Ivanschitz (7 Ivica Vastic-64), 11-Umit Korkmaz, 20-Martin Harnik, 9-Roland Linz (18-Roman Kienast 64)

Poland: 1-Artur Boruca, 13-Marcin Wasilewski, 2-Mariusz JOP (4-Pawel Golanski 46), 6-Jacek Bak, 14-Michal Zewlakow, 18-Mariusz Lewandowski, 5-Dariusz Dudka, 8-Jacek Krzynowek 11; -- Marek Saganowski (17-Wojciech Lobodzinski 83), 20-Roger Guerreiro (19-Rafal Murawski 85), 7-Ebi Smolarek