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Tenero, Switzerland: One of Austria's most celebrated football successes is known in neighbouring Germany as the "Shame of Cordoba."
Defending champions Germany were eliminated 3-2 by Austria in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, in a match where Austria had nothing to gain and Germany everything to lose.
Now, 30 years later, the Austrians are once again in a position to ruin Germany's tournament when they meet today in Vienna for their final Group B match in the European Championship.
Germany must not lose if they are to advance to the quarterfinals, while co-host Austria could hope for a place in the last eight with a win, depending what happens in the other game between Croatia and Poland.
Germany coach Joachim Loew has ruled out a "second Cordoba," although his team find themselves under major pressure after losing 2-1 unexpectedly to Croatia. "Our team will show a different face, I can promise you," Loew said. "It's a setback, but it won't throw us off."
The Austrians, naturally, were reaching back 30 years ago for inspiration.
"We need a second Cordoba," captain Andreas Ivanschitz said. "That's a piece of history in Austrian football. We are about to rewrite that history."
Coach Josef Hickersberger played in Cordoba but he did not want to draw any comparisons.
"Playing against Germany for me is something special," Hickersberger said. "What happened 30 years ago doesn't play any special role for me. We won in Cordoba but that is as far as it goes."
Calm under pressure
The Germans say they don't mind the pressure.
"I'm looking very much forward to this game, 50,000 people in the stadium, what else could you want?" central defender Christoph Metzelder said. "With all due respect, if we regain our own strengths, we will win. As the German national team, we always have pressure and we can handle it." The team's general manager, Oliver Bierhoff, was even more blunt.
"There can be only one winner and that will be Germany," he said.
Austria are the lowest-ranked team in the tournament and only made it since they did not have to qualify as one of the co-hosts. But thanks to an injury-time penalty that earned it a 1-1 draw with Poland, Austria can now have some hope.
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