Montenegro v Austria background
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Article summary
Montenegro's Group G prospects have been revived yet they come up against an Austria team already guaranteed qualification and in superlative form.
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Montenegro trail third-placed Sweden by just one point, and are three behind second-ranked Russia, so a victory against Group G winners Austria could resurrect their hopes of a UEFA EURO 2016 spot.
• Austria are already confirmed as section winners ahead of their Podgorica assignment on 9 October.
• Montenegro, in fourth, have an inferior head-to-head record in the event that they finish level on points with Sweden.
Previous meetings
• Rubin Okotie scored the only goal as Austria beat Montenegro 1-0 in their first Group G encounter, in Vienna last October. It was also the nations' first senior international meeting.
Form guide
• Montenegro ended a five-game wait for a Group G victory with two 2-0 successes in their September fixtures – at home to Liechtenstein and away to Moldova.
• Austria are on a seven-match winning streak in Group G and are also unbeaten in their last nine competitive fixtures (W8 D1). Moreover, the Alpine side have won their last five away qualifiers.
Disciplinary
• Marko Baša, Mirko Vučinić and Nikola Vukčević will incur a suspension with their next yellow cards.
• Julian Baumgartlinger, Aleksandar Dragovic, Florian Klein, Sebastian Prödl and Zlatko Junuzovic will incur a suspension with their next yellow cards.
Trivia and links
• Austria's Okotie and Montenegro's Stefan Mugoša are club-mates in Germany with 1860 München.
• The sole previous encounter between Austrian and Montenegrin teams in UEFA age-group competition was a 1-1 draw in Grodig, Austria, in a UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying round mini-tournament on 8 October 2010. Daniel Offenbacher (22) put Austria in front, but Mugoša (34) replied for Montenegro, who had Branislav Janković sent off on 87 minutes.
• The nations' clubs have also met in four UEFA competition games, with the Austrian representatives having the better of those duels: W4 D0 L0. Most recently, Austria Wien eliminated Rudar Pljevlja 5-0 on aggregate in the 2011/12 UEFA Europa League second qualifying round.
