Daniel Bachmann’s international debut for Austria against England was a memorable occasion for a number of reasons, not all of them positive.
It was the realisation of a lifelong dream for the 26-year-old Watford goalkeeper who had gone five years without playing for his country at any level. That it came against England, a country where he has spent the best part of a decade, met his wife and raised two young children, made it all the sweeter.
However, the game was tarnished by an unsavoury incident that took place before it had even kicked off, as some England fans inside the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough decided to boo their own players as they took the knee.
Some did so again on Sunday night too in England’s final Euro 2020 warm-up game against Romania, despite Gareth Southgate urging fans to “reflect” on how their actions would impact the players beforehand.
“It was like one side was clapping and then all of a sudden the booing got louder,” Bachmann recalls to i. “Obviously, we take the knee before every game in England and it’s usually for three or four seconds, but it was about 10-15 seconds from when the referee blew his whistle to when he blew it again, so it was quite a long time compared to what we usually do.
“You could hear the booing get louder and louder and the clapping getting quieter and all of a sudden people kind of realised ‘we probably shouldn’t boo here’ and it went quieter again. It’s a difficult situation because like Gareth Southgate said after the game, people seem to think it’s a political stance that they don’t agree with but it’s not, it just a sign that we’re all together and supporting everyone that gets abused.
“I think it’s an important message. A football dressing room is probably the best example of how a society should be. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, it doesn’t matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter who you are, we’re all one team, we all get on well and understand each other. If you look into a dressing room that’s how the world should be. There are lots of different nations, skin colours, sexualities and everyone gets on and respects each other. And that’s how it should be.
“It’s nice that I’m in this kind of bubble and environment everyday.”
Bachmann impressed during the game itself, notably making a fine stop to deny Harry Kane inside the six-yard-box and that display convinced his manager Franco Foda that he warrants a starting place at the tournament, as confirmed by the Austrian FA on Sunday.
The first task for Bachmann and co will be to reverse their country’s dismal record at the European Championship. Austria failed to qualify for any of the first 12 tournaments and although they have featured in two of the last three – in 2008 on home soil and in 2016 – they are yet to win a game from six attempts.
Expectations have been raised this time around, though, since Austria were drawn alongside the Netherlands, North Macedonia and Ukraine in Group C.
“The first target is to make it to the last 16. From there you never know how far can you go, if you hit form at the right time we can go a long way because we do have a good team. The first step is to win the first group game against North Macedonia, they’re a tough side, they beat Germany a couple of months ago so they’re not a walkover, but that’s a game we have to win if we want to do well.
“We have quality players, 21 of our 26 players play in the Bundesliga and at good clubs as well. We do have a good squad, it’s just about everything coming together. Everybody knows how good Marko Arnautovic can be, same with David Alaba, he’s won 27 titles in 11 years at Bayern Munich including two Champions Leagues and then Marcel Sabitzer as well, he’s been linked with Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool so we have quality players.”
Back in December, Bachmann’s chances of starting for Austria at the tournament seemed remote as he had only played twice for his club in the Carabao Cup, including memorably against Oxford United where he made three saves in a penalty shootout win.
However, a broken finger to Ben Foster in January led to Bachmann getting his chance in the Championship and he seized it with both hands, playing a key role as the Hornets secured an immediate return to the Premier League by winning 16 of their final 23 games with him in goal.
Bachmann’s form led to Watford’s most famous supporter, Sir Elton John, joining his fan club.
“He’s an absolute legend, everybody in the world knows who Elton John is. He just came up to me and said ‘Dan, great season, well done, thanks for everything’. It was a surreal moment, Sir Elton John knows who I am! It’s pretty incredible really.”
Despite being on the books at Stoke City and then Watford for a number of years, Bachmann has never played in the Premier League and he is hoping to do his bit to keep his club there following their relegation a year ago.
“I’m really looking forward to it and Wednesday was a good test as that was pretty much a best of the Premier League team,” he says. “That did go through my head after the game, that that’s what I’ll face every week next season.
“We were too good to go down [in 2020], I think personally. There was obviously various things that went wrong during the season and coronavirus definitely didn’t help us. But we’ve bounced back straight away which isn’t an easy thing to do, the team spirit is incredible at the moment and that togetherness was a big part in us getting promoted.”
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3x3kxYp
Post a Comment