Germany legend Lothar Matthaus has named Borussia Dortmund and Austria midfielder Marcel Sabitzer as his Euro 2024 player so far.
Austria have been one of the most eye-catching teams in the tournament, topping a group featuring France and the Netherlands, beating the latter and losing to the former 1-0 by one goal – while beating Poland 3-1.
Ralf Rangnick’s men have been in hot form and look to be scoring goals consistently in Germany, with many now tipping them to go further than their next round of 16 clash with Turkey.
Austria’s success at Euro 2024 so far has been largely fueled by the form of Sabitzer, who ranks first among his teammates in the tournament in shots (9), direct shots (3), goals (1), third-place winners. (10), final third passes attempted/completed (52/34) and crosses attempted/completed (14/3).
Mathaus names Sabitzer his Euro 2024 pick so far
Sabitzer’s form at the Euros comes after a fine campaign with Borussia Dortmund, where he scored six goals and provided nine assists in 40 games in all competitions, helping. Die Schwarzgelben reaching the Champions League final.
That’s a far cry from the disappointing performance Sabitzer put in during his 18-game loan spell at Manchester United in the 2022/23 campaign.
It was also enough to earn high praise from Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Germany midfielder Mathaus.
“My best player in this tournament so far is Marcel Sabitzer. I saw him live in Berlin when Austria won 3-2 against Holland,” wrote Matthäus in a Sport.de column (via Bulinews).
“His speed, his ease, his precision, the way he uses his teammates, the way he works at the back, the speed with which he plays forward – I have never seen him like this in Dortmund.
“Sabitzer stood out in this amazing Austrian team. They finished ahead of France and the Netherlands and were not the worst team when they lost 1-0 to France. This team does and does what the Dutch and French can do: Speed up and down the ball. This is Ralph Rangnick’s style.
“What stands out is that even Austrian league players with little international experience are satisfactory. That’s great.”
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