Austria winger Marko Arnautovic. (Photo : Getty Images)
Powerhouse national teams Austria and Hungary will meet each other to open Group F competitions in the 2016 UEFA European Championship in a match scheduled at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux in Bordeaux on Tuesday, June 14.
Austria, currently ranked 10th in the world by FIFA, is one of the dark horses of the tournament and is predicted by football pundits to take the top spot of the group if mighty Portugal slips.
Head coach Marcel Koller's boys are fast, energetic, has great stamina, and quick on countering their opponents attacks, which makes them a dangerous team to play against. The squad boasts off some of the big names in Europe such as team captain Christian Fuchs of Leicester City, Sebastian Prödl of Watford, Martin Hinteregger of Borussia Monchengladbach, and Aleksandar Dragovic of Dynamo Kyiv on defense.
In the midfield are the likes of Bayern Munich's David Alaba, Mainz's Julian Baumgartlinger, and Werder Bremen's Zlatko Junuzovic while Stoke City's Marko Arnautović and Ingolstadt's Lukas Hinterseer lead the team up front.
Of course, not to be forgotten is veteran striker Marc Janko, who currently plays for Swiss club Basel. He may be 32-year-old now but he still gets the job done for his home country when called upon.
Das Team has not been successful in their warmups for Euro 2016, though, as they had lost three of their last five friendlies before going into this summer's competitions.
Their most recent game was a 0-2 loss to the Netherlands on June 5 at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Austria's capital of Vienna, as per SkySports, and they will try to gain momentum with this opening match against Hungary.
Meanwhile, the Hungarians, ranked 20th in the world by FIFA as of the moment, is considered a past superpower in the sport. However, with the emergence of so many national teams through the years, they slowly went down in football's pecking order.
Head coach Bernd Storck's lineup in this tourney suggests that they will not advance in the knockout stage after the group stage matches are settled. The team needs a few miracles to avoid finishing last in Group F.
Their Euro sendoff against Germany, also on June 5, ended in a similar 0-2 defeat with that of the Austrians, via Goal.
The predicted result is a 3-1 victory for Austria.
Austria starting lineup (4-2-3-1 formation): Almer; Klein, Dragovic, Prödl, Fuchs; Baumgartlinger, Alaba; Sabitzer, Junuzovic, Arnautovic; Janko
Hungary starting lineup (4-3-3 formation): Kiraly; Fiola, Guzmics, Lang, Kadar; Nagy, Pinter, Kleinheisler; Dzsudzsak, Szalai, Lovrencsics
