Soccer Football - International Friendly - Slovakia v Austria - Tehelne pole, Bratislava, Slovakia - March 23, 2024 Austria's Christoph Baumgartner celebrates scoring their first goal with Konrad Laimer REUTERS/David W Cerny
(Reuters) -Austria's Christoph Baumgartner scored six seconds after kickoff in Saturday's 2-0 friendly win over Slovakia, the fastest recorded goal in international football.
The 24-year-old sprinted from the centre circle and skipped past three challenges before firing a low shot from outside the box into the bottom corner.
As Slovakia's home fans looked on in disbelief, Austrians in the away section at the Tehelne pole stadium in Bratislava celebrated as the RB Leipzig midfielder was mobbed by his team mates.
"We've done this variation before, sprinting away at full risk from the kickoff. Somehow the sequence of steps worked out so that I got the run," Baumgartner said.
The goal came earlier than Lukas Podolski's for Germany against Ecuador in 2013 when the forward pinched the ball from a defender and scored seven seconds into the match.
Substitute Andreas Weimann sealed the victory with a late strike eight minutes from time.
Austria continue to prepare for Euro 2024 with friendly games against Turkey, Serbia and Switzerland. They will face France, the Netherlands and either Poland or Wales in the group stage in Germany.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru;Editing by Christian Radnedge and Ed Osmond)
