Austria win & Iceland squander lead

The final preparations for the World Cup are underway and alongside Alfred Finnbogason, Augsburg’s Austrian duo of Martin Hinteregger and Kevin Danso were all in action over the weekend. Iceland 2-3 Norway For Alfred Finnbogason and Iceland, their first friendly outing in preparation for the World Cup ended in defeat against Norway. The Icelanders came up short in front of their home fans. In the 15th minute, Bjørn Johnsen’s spectacular goal gave the Norwegians the lead. Yet their joy was short-lived. After Iceland midfielder Rúrik Gíslason was fouled in the box, FCA striker Finnbogason converted the penalty to level at 1-1 (30‘). At half time, Iceland made several changes including replacing Finnbogason. The 29-year-old watched on from the bench as Gylfi Sigurðsson put his team 2-1 up (70’) before Norway stole the win in the last ten minutes with goals from Joshua King (80’) and Alexander Sørloth (85‘). The next test for Iceland will be Ghana on 7th June. Austria 2-1 Germany The Austrian national team, unbeaten in six games, lined up against World Champions, Germany. The match kicked off almost two hours late due to some adverse weather conditions. Kevin Danso watched the game from the bench, while Martin Hinteregger started once again. Germany took the lead early on through a Mesut Özil goal (11’), but didn’t take their subsequent chances as well as the Austrians. The teams went into the break 1-0 at half time. Shortly after play resumed, Austria went up a gear. A David Alaba corner found Hinteregger unmarked at the far post and the FCA centre back volleyed home past Manuel Neuer (53’). From then on, The Austrians dominated the match. Alessandro Schöpf subsequently made it 2-1 from the middle of the box with a low-shot into the bottom left corner. One friendly remains for Hinteregger, Danso and co. before the summer break begins. They face Brazil in Vienna on 10th June.