KANSAS CITY, United States, June 28 (Xinhua) -- Austria head coach Ralf Rangnick described his side's dramatic 3-3 draw with Algeria as one of the most incredible matches in his coaching career, as both teams advanced to the knockout stage of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in a thrilling Group J finale on Saturday.
The result, sealed by Sasa Kalajdzic's last-gasp equalizer after Riyad Mahrez had put Algeria ahead in stoppage time, sent Austria through as group runner-up behind Argentina, while Algeria advanced as one of the eight best third-placed teams. Iran finished ninth among all third-placed teams and was eliminated from the tournament.
Austria will face Group H winner Spain, while Algeria takes on Switzerland.
"I don't even remember a match that had such a dramatic course and such an unexpected trajectory. It's incredible," Rangnick said in his post-match press conference. "I'm sort of relieved and incredulous and happy. And the locker room is madness."
The German coach admitted that the final minutes defied all expectations.
"I don't think anybody would have expected those last minutes," he said. "You cannot score a goal like this, even if you train for thousands of hours. And this speaks so highly of the squad."
"Today we're all very happy. And tomorrow we'll prepare for the match against Spain," he added.
Rangnick acknowledged the difficulty of facing Algeria, praising its technical quality while also pointing to areas for improvement.
"Algeria has very good players with a lot of technical solutions. We could not always defend ourselves very well. And we let too many balls go through, and we have to improve that during the next games," Rangnick said.
"It was not easy for us, because the climate was a bit tough. I think we underestimated it a little bit. The three changes during the halftime was important, because we needed some fresh players on the pitch."
Looking ahead to the challenge of facing Spain, Rangnick made it clear that Austria would need to raise its game significantly to have any chance of progressing further.
"Today we were successful. Now we prepare for Spain," he said. "We have to have the same performance or even better to have a chance in that match. Anything is possible." ■
