The first UEFA European Championship finals came in 1960 when 17 nations fought it out for the four spots at the finals, held in France.
The hosts were surprisingly beaten in the Semi-Finals by Yugoslavia, having been 4-2 up with a quarter of an hour to play before losing 5-4. It was the Soviet Union who would go on to win the tournament, and slowly but surely, the competition expanded and has matured into one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.
By 1980 the number of participants in the finals had doubled to eight, and the 1984 finals in France was perhaps the moment that UEFA’s flagship national team bonanza really started to take off, and it hasn’t looked back since.
By 2016 the tournament had tripled in size to a 24-team finals tournament, and the 60th anniversary event, the Euro 2020 finals, took place across the continent, albeit in a somewhat restricted capacity due to the coronavirus pandemic that also caused the event to be delayed by a year.
Over two and a half million fans watched the 2016 event, and that number is only going to increase as interest continues to grow. UEFA chooses to release tickets for the event, initially via ballots, and they do so with the first tranche prior to the draw for the finals, which means that rather bizarrely, fans are applying for tickets for games without even knowing the identities of the two teams they’ll be watching.
Even then, the chances of winning in these lottery-style conditions are very low indeed, so we’d recommend you use SeatPick to make sure you get the specific tickets you are looking for.
We can guarantee access to tickets for any match in the tournament, all the way up to and including the UEFA European Championship Final. This is because we align with hundreds of the most trusted ticket reseller sites, offering our users the broadest range of tickets online.
This makes it easier to check the market, compare prices and find the right tickets to your budget and schedule.
Austria vs Albania UEFA Euros Tournament Record
At the time of writing, Austria had only qualified for the UEFA European Championships on three occasions, and it took 12 failed attempts before Das Team finally got to the finals, and even then, that was due to their co-hosting of the event along with neighbours Switzerland.
They managed to accrue just one point from their three qualifiers and therefore exited the tournament at the group stage. Euro 2016 saw Austria make it to the finals on merit but once again, only managed a single draw from their three matches.
Euro 2020 was a marked improvement as Austria beat both North Macedonia and Ukraine in their group and were then unfortunate to be knocked out in the Round of 16 by a strong Italy side after extra-time.
Albania’s record at the UEFA European Championship is even worse than Austria. Their only appearance in the finals to date was for Euro 2016 in France. They performed decently at the tournament, losing to a single goal to Switzerland and then being edged out by hosts France, who scored two very late goals to beat them.
Shqiponjat finished the tournament with a win over Romania, but that was not enough to prolong their involvement.
Austria vs Albania Head-to-Head
Austria and Albania have played each other in four UEFA European Championship matches prior to their upcoming clash.
These all took place in qualifying tournaments. The first of which came ahead of the Euro 1984 finals and resulted in two wins for Austria, who won both home and away.
The second clashes took place in the Qualifying for Euro 88 the first of these resulted in a 3-0 win for Austria in Graz, and an early goal from Toni Polster gave the Austrians an away win in Tirana.
