Hickersberger threw on Ivica Vastic, Umit Korkmaz and Roland Linz in the second half to add to Austria's firepower.

It did work as shots from Harnick, Vistic, Korkmaz all forced good saves from Croatia's keeper Stipe Pletikosa.

Substitute Roman Kienast got his head to a valuable free kick in injury time but the ball just slid wide to the frustration of the co-hosts.

Croatia also gave away opportunities including a Darijo Srna's dangerous delivery of which no one got on the end.

Austria, ranked 92nd in the world by FIFA, were better in ball possession and had eight shots on target compared to Croatia's three, but the lack of experience and efficiency cost the championship finals new comers any chance.

"The whole team are very depressed," Hichkersherger told a press conference after the match.

"We are very disappointed as we could equalize or even win the match during the second half," he said.

"We were dominant in the second half and we got very good opportunities, unfortunately, we did not score and got home with empty hands," he added.

In another match on Sunday, Germany and Poland staged a tit-for-tat battle at the Worthersee Stadium of Klagenfurt.

Podolski scored both goals in the 20th and 72nd minute respectively for Germany, all of which came from the pass from selfless Bayern teammate Miroslav Klose.

For the first, Podolski found the net after he got a superb pass from Klose, who cracked Poland's offside trap by getting an excellent ball from Mario Gomez and penetrated the Polish defense line with his abrupt movement.

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