The dream is well and truly on! The Austrian national team beat Italy 2-0 in the FIFA U-17 World Cup semi-final to make the final. Right in the thick of it were numerous young players from the Red Bull Football Academy.

Nine Young Bulls in World Cup squad

One of the talents with our youth development partners, Johannes Moser, once again made his mark against the Italians. The tournament's current top scorer (8 goals in 7 games) was a key figure in the semi-final clash, scoring two spectacular goals. He first opened the scoring in the 57th minute after a perfectly executed through ball, before sealing the victory with a powerful free kick in stoppage time (90+2).

Despite Dominik Dobis being sidelined due to an injury sustained during the U17 World Cup, eight Salzburg youth players remain in the current Austrian national squad. Centre-back Jakob Pokorny captained the team, while Filip Aleksic, Rafael Feldinger, Florian Hofmann, Nicolas Jozepovic and Jakob Werner also appeared against Italy. Werner provided the assist for the opening goal with a truly exquisite pass. Emil Ganser remained on the bench for the semi-final but played the full 90 minutes in the group stage match against New Zealand.

Big final on Thursday

Now it's time to cross our fingers once more as our lads take on the winner of the semi-final between Portugal and Brazil this Thursday (17:00CET) at the 45,000-capacity Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar. Sky Sport Austria and ORF 1 will broadcast the final live.

^{© Photos: ÖFB/Andreas Pichler}

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Austria U17 in World Cup final!