Austria vs Israel prediction and predicted line-ups: Rangnick's 50th game without Alaba and Laimer, Nations League
Ralf Rangnick's 50th game in charge comes without Alaba, Arnautović, Sabitzer and Laimer, and with a new captain to pick. UEFA has classed the game in Linz as high-risk. Kick-off time, team news and line-ups.
Ralf Rangnick takes charge of Austria for the 50th time on Thursday 24 September, his first game since the World Cup without Alaba, Arnautović and Sabitzer. The visitors in Linz are Israel, who won the last two meetings they hosted, 4-2 and 5-2, and whose head coach Ran Ben Shimon is aiming for a top-two finish.
Austria vs Israel: kick-off time and venue
Austria vs Israel kicks off at 19:45 UK time (20:45 Central European time) on Thursday 24 September at the Raiffeisen Arena in Linz. It is Group B3 of League B in the Nations League, alongside the Republic of Ireland and Kosovo: the winners are promoted to League A and the runners-up go into a play-off. Bulgaria's Georgi Kabakov is the referee, with Portugal's Tiago Martins on VAR. The return game is on 17 November in Debrecen, Hungary, as Israel do not play at home.
Team news
UEFA has classed the game as high-risk, and two demonstrations have been announced in Linz for Thursday. It will still be played with fans, and the Austrian federation points out that the home games against Israel in 2019 and 2021 passed without incident.
Rangnick also has to pick a new captain. David Alaba, without a club since leaving Real Madrid, was not called up, Marko Arnautović has retired from international football, Marcel Sabitzer is taking a break until the end of the year at least and Christoph Baumgartner, who injured his thigh at the World Cup, is not expected back until December. Konrad Laimer has a left adductor problem and misses Israel and Kosovo, with LASK's Sascha Horvath called up in his place. At the training camp in Windischgarsten, defender Phillipp Mwene said: “Ich glaube, dass wir jetzt alle mehr Verantwortung übernehmen müssen” (“I think we all have to take on more responsibility now”), in comments reported on 21 September. Israel are without Dia Saba, left out by mutual agreement.
Austria vs Israel predicted line-ups
For Austria there is only one full predicted line-up, so treat it with caution. It uses the 4-2-3-1 Rangnick favours: Alexander Schlager; Posch, Lienhart, Danso, Mwene; Seiwald, Xaver Schlager; Wanner, Frosinone's Romano Schmid, Wimmer; Gregoritsch. The goalkeeping spot is open, though: Schlager is a back-up at Werder and Rangnick wants to use the two home games to look at his new goalkeepers, LASK's Jungwirth and Salzburg's Zawieschitzky. Lyon defender Felix Bacher and 18-year-old Vasilije Markovic of Austria Vienna could also win their first caps.
It is the same story for Israel, with a single full prediction that needs the same caution: Daniel Peretz; Dasa, Feingold, Shlomo, Revivo; Abu Fani, Dor Peretz; Abada, Gloukh, Solomon; Turgeman. Ben Shimon has said Khalaili will play mainly in attack, on the right. The official line-ups are released about an hour before kick-off.
Head-to-head and form
The home side have won each of the last four meetings: Israel 4-2 and 5-2 in Haifa in 2019 and 2021, with five goals from Eran Zahavi, and Austria 3-1 in Vienna in 2019 and 4-2 in Klagenfurt in November 2021. At the World Cup Austria beat Jordan 3-1, lost to Argentina, drew 3-3 with Algeria and went out in the round of 32, 3-0 to Spain. In qualifying Israel lost 5-4 and 3-0 to Italy and 5-0 in Norway.
Our Austria vs Israel prediction
Our call is at least two goals, confidence 7 out of 10. The last four meetings produced 23 goals, never fewer than four in a game, and Austria's four World Cup matches had 15 between them. The rest of the round is in our matchday one preview.
Every game with our calls is on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in player predictions.
