Austria got points on the board with a routine win over Northern Ireland
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Such is the cut-throat nature of major tournament football, at least in this refreshingly unbloated format, that just six days into these European Championships, Northern Ireland and Austria arrived at St. Mary’s near enough in do-or-die mode.
After opening round defeats to Norway and England, respectively, both knew another would almost certainly be fatal, the kind of ruthlessness lost from the men’s Euros when it expanded to 24 teams and brought the best third-place farce into play.
