Austria beat Italy 2-0 in the U17 World Cup semi-final on Monday afternoon, qualifying for the final for the first time in their history.
Italy’s Samuele Inacio and Thomas Campaniello had efforts drift wide inside the three-minute mark, setting the tempo for the remainder of the first half.
Austria’s first sight of the Italian goal came in the 19th minute, when Hasan Deshishku fired an effort beyond the goal, before Nicolas Jozepovic registered their first shot on target.
The Italians continued to dominate afterwards, and Jean Mambuku should have broken the deadlock from close range, but failed to hit the target.
Despite Italy’s dominance, Daniel Posch in the Austrian goal did not make a save before the break.
Daniele Franceschini’s side were made to rue their missed chances as Austria scored before the hour mark.
Jakob Werner threaded a through ball to Johannes Moser, and he hit the bottom right corner from inside the area.
Mambuku and Thomas Campaniello squandered missed openings to equalise for Italy. They were reduced to ten men when Benit Borasio was shown a red card for a dangerous foul in stoppage time.
Moser subsequently sealed the victory, smashing a right-footed shot into the top left corner. It was his eighth goal of the tournament.
The Austrian youngster is now two goals shy of equalling the record for most goals scored (10) in a single edition of the tournament, set by Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen in 2015.
Austria will now face the winner of the Brazil versus Portugal semi-final clash in Thursday’s final at the Khalifa International Stadium.
