Austria without 1860 aces

Schopp exception
The 1860 trio are all injured, leaving coach Hans Krankl to put his faith in home-based players, with the exception of Brescia Calcio midfield player Markus Schopp. The rest of the 20-man squad are from Austrian clubs.

Four additions
Krankl has added four players to the group that beat Costa Rica 2-0 in a recent friendly. In come Ferdinand Feldhofer from SK Rapid Wien and FC Kärnten's Mario Hieblinger, while Grazer AK duo Matthias Dollinger and Roland Kollmann both return after injury.

GAK example
Krankl hopes his team will show the same spirit Grazer AK did when losing in extra time to AFC Ajax in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round, 3-2 on aggregate. He said: "We will play a similar way to how GAK did against Ajax when we play the Netherlands and hope to show the same spirit."

Third place
Austria are currently third in EURO 2004™ qualifying Group 3, with nine points from six matches, four behind the Netherlands and the Czech Republic who have played a game less. They face the Netherlands in Rotterdam on 6 September before taking on the Czech Republic in Vienna on 11 October in their final match.

Austria squad
Mandl, Payer, Dospel, Ehmann, Feldhofer, Hiden, Hieblinger, Pogatetz, Aufhauser, Dollinger, Flögel, Ivanschitz, Kovacevic, Schopp, Wagner, Glieder, Haas, Kirchler, Kollmann, Wallner.