Northern Ireland v Austria

Words Liam Blackburn

Foda, who was born in Germany, was chosen to succeed Marcel Koller in October 2017 when the Swiss resigned after six years in charge following the nation's failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The 52-year-old left his second permanent spell with Sturm Graz to take charge of the national team, with the Austrian club at the top of the table when his appointment was announced. In his previous stint with Graz, Foda led the club to the Austrian Bundesliga title in 2011 having won the domestic cup the season before. "He is someone who holds good qualifications. He knows Austrian football as a player and a coach," Austrian Football Association president Leo Windtner said upon Foda's hiring. Foda has a contract until the end of 2019 but has the incentive of having that deal extended if Austria can follow up their appearance at Euro 2016 by making the finals again in 2020. His first match in charge was actually a friendly last November against Uruguay - when he was still at the helm of Graz as well - and he left veteran striker Marc Janko out of his first squad. Janko was the top scorer under previous coach Koller but, now 35, he has featured for just 19 minutes under Foda, who selected Marko Arnautovic and Guido Burgstaller together in attack against Northern Ireland in Vienna last month. In the absence of Julian Baumgartlinger and David Alaba, Foda also handed Arnautovic the captain's armband in that fixture and saw his chosen skipper score the only goal. That was an important win for the Austrians who, like Northern Ireland, had lost their opening Nations AUSTRIA THE COACH Having officially started work on New Year's Day in 2018, Franco Foda has already led Austria to victories over Uruguay, Russia, Germany, Sweden and Northern Ireland.

League fixture to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prior to that their form under Foda had been impressive. That 2-1 success over Uruguay in his first game at the helm - delivered by substitute Louis Schaub's late winner - was their third in a run of seven successive victories. Perhaps the most impressive of all was in June when they came from behind to beat Joachim Low's Germany in one of their World Cup warm-up friendlies. However, they entered this international break needing to rediscover their consistency having lost three of their past five games, scoring just three times. » » Franco Foda is the first German to manage the Austrian national team. As a player he won two caps for West Germany in 1987. » » The Austrian Football Association (Österreichischer Fußball-Bund – ÖFB) considered hiring Foda in 2011 when they gave the job to Marcel Koller. Foda impressed by winning the Austrian Cup in 2010 with Sturm Graz and the league the following year. » » As a player Foda spent the majority of his career in his native Germany with the likes of Kaiserslautern, Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart. » » His son, Sandro Foda, now 28, played under him while he was in charge at Sturm Graz between 2007 and 2012.

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