Ralf Rangnick appears to take a swipe at England… as the former Man United interim boss reveals he ‘struggled to stay awake’ when watching other Euro 2024 games

Ralf Rangnick appeared to target England, France and Portugal after Austria’s elimination from the 2024 European Championship.

Austria were eliminated in the round of 16 after losing 2–1 to Turkey, despite being favourites for the match.

Vincenzo Montella’s team took a 2-0 lead thanks to two goals from Martin Demiral, with Michael Gregoritsch scoring another for Austria. However, the Austrians were unable to equalise.

Despite their elimination, Austria contributed to one of the most entertaining matches of the tournament so far, a meeting that came after a number of disappointing round of 16 exits.

Switzerland and Germany advanced thanks to 2-0 wins over Italy and Denmark respectively, while Spain and the Netherlands impressed with big wins over Georgia and Romania.

Austria were knocked out in the round of 16 after being beaten 2-1 by Turkey on Tuesday.

However, England, France and Portugal won with difficulty against Slovakia, Belgium and Slovenia respectively in three boring encounters.

And after Austria’s elimination, former United manager Rangnick appeared to take a thinly veiled dig at those three teams as he tried to see the positives in his team’s exit.

‘“I’ve seen other games where it was hard to even stay awake,” he said. “And that wasn’t the case in our games.”

Austria had a great chance to level the score deep into injury time when Christoph Baumgartner headed a shot on target, but it looked like it would go into the corner.

But out of nowhere, Turkish goalkeeper Mert Gunok sprang to his feet and stretched to his full length, improbably tipping the midfielder’s effort wide of the post, securing Turkey a famous victory.

And after the match, Rangnick looked back on that dramatic moment at the end of the match.

Rangnick appeared to ridicule England when he criticised the quality of some of the matches at Euro 2024

Gareth Southgate’s team narrowly defeated Slovakia on Sunday after a dull performance

“We had enough time to draw,” he said. “But it was very difficult because Turkey had Gordon Banks in goal.”

The reference to former England goalkeeper Banks was in reference to his stunning goal against Brazil during the 1970 World Cup.

This is something that was repeated by Lee Dixon, commentating on the match for ITV, called it a “Gordon Banks-esque” save, before adding: “His distribution is absolutely top notch, but this is world class.

‘He’s like a Gordon Banks replica. He’s a rock at the back. He made a good save in the first half and he made a worldie to keep the equaliser at 2-1 and send them through to the quarter-finals.’