LEIPZIG, Germany — Austria's coach Ralf Rangnick expressed shock on Tuesday over his side's Euro 2024 exit at the hands of Turkiye, ruing its failure to convert pressure into chances and a spectacular last-gasp save that stopped the game going to extra time.

Rangnick said his team had played four entertaining, intense matches and was worthy of a quarterfinal berth, but paid the price for poor defending that saw it go behind after 57 seconds to a buoyant Turkish side.

Merih Demiral pounced on a bungled Austrian effort to clear a corner and he doubled Turkiye's lead just before the hour mark before Michael Gregoritsch pulled one back seven minutes later.

Austria flicked the switch, but struggled to create substantive chances until a potent stoppage-time header from Christoph Baumgartner bounced off the turf and was saved spectacularly by goalkeeper Mert Gunok.

"If you're behind with two goals, then things aren't any easier. The team tried everything. We then scored one goal and we had enough time to achieve a draw," Rangnick told a news conference.

"It's difficult if you have Gordon Banks in goal," he said, likening Gunok's save to the one famously pulled off against Brazil by the late England goalkeeper from a Pele header in the 1970 World Cup.

Austria's elimination extends its unfathomable failure to win a match in the knockout rounds of a major tournament to seven decades.

"You also need a bit of luck. If Baumgartner's header at the end would have gone in, we could have won this game," Rangnick said.

"This was a historic chance to win, to go to the quarterfinal and play against the Netherlands. I cannot believe that we're going home today. We thought that we would continue our journey here," he said.

Rangnick said his team now had to capitalize on its momentum and ensure qualification for the World Cup for the first time since 1998.

"We are in part one at the moment, and that hasn't happened for years, that we are in part one and we want to stay there. And we have a good chance to qualify for a World Cup after many years," he said.

One player who may no longer figure is striker Marko Arnautovic, who hinted Tuesday's defeat could be his last outing for the national side.

"It's very bitter. It's madness that we left the game like this," Arnautovic said. "For us, it's over. The coach said 'chin up'."

"It could be that it's my last game," he added.

Stellar save

A first-minute goal and a stellar save in the final seconds helped send Turkiye into the quarterfinals.

Demiral scored twice, including the opener after just 57 seconds, and goalkeeper Gunok pulled off one of the saves of tournament deep into injury time to maintain Turkiye's 2-1 advantage.

"Our team spirit showed until the last minute," Turkiye coach Vincenzo Montella said.

Gunok showed great reflexes and agility, diving to his right to palm away Baumgartner's close-range header four minutes into added time.

That save set up a quarterfinal on Saturday against the Netherlands, a team Montella said "fight like lions".

"We will gather our mental and physical strength and keep following our path," he said.

Austria had 21 attempts compared with Turkiye's six, regularly testing Gunok.

"I'm sure that if Baumi had scored to take the game to extra time, we would have gone on to win the match," Austria coach Rangnick said. "The only thing we could be accused of, is that we didn't score enough goals from the chances we had, and that we didn't work well twice for set pieces."

The game got off to a ferocious start. Both teams had chances inside the first 30 seconds before Demiral scored when the Austrian defense failed to deal with a corner.

Baumgartner's attempted clearance rebounded back off teammate Stefan Posch to goalkeeper Patrick Pentz, who scooped it off the line — straight onto the foot of Demiral, who pounced on the opportunity to score.

It was the second-fastest goal ever at the Euros — Albania scored after 23 seconds against Italy in the group stage.

Demiral's goal set off wild celebrations among the majority of fans in the stadium — and plenty outside it, too. Germany is home to some 3 million Turks or people with Turkish roots, making them the country's largest ethnic minority, and the team has been enjoying fevered support at Euro 2024.

Austria almost responded, but Demiral somehow did enough on the line to keep Baumgartner from scoring.

The Austrians emerged with renewed vigor after the break, but a corner gave Turkiye respite. A shower of beer cups failed to put off Arda Guler as he delivered a perfect cross for Demiral to head in his second, and what would prove to be the decisive goal of the game in the 59th minute.

Agencies