How to watch Euro 2021 Group C – Stream Austria vs North Macedonia

Euro 2020 is well underway and, despite the unusual circumstances surrounding the tournament, the first few Group A and B games did not disappoint. 

Most European nations are home to broadcasters who are, at the very least, airing their national team’s games for free along with a string of other games. If you live outside of Europe, however, it’s likely you’ll have to pay a subscription fee to watch the games on a pay-TV channel. Well, unless you have a VPN. 

First up in Group C is Austria vs North Macedonia. This guide will show you how to stream Euro 2021 on a free, legal stream using just a VPN. 

Unblock Austria vs North Macedonia in 5 steps

Here’s a step-by-step guide that will show you exactly how to unblock Austria vs Macedonia in just a few straightforward actions. It’s not a very complicated process, so you’ll be up and running in no time! 

How to watch Austria vs North Macedonia outside of Europe

In this section, you’ll find a brief rundown of which channels are showing Euro 2020 across Europe and some additional information about their programming for the tournament. 

This is not an extensive list – every country in Europe will, one way or another, have a broadcaster showing the games – but these are all accessible with a VPN online and have commentary in some of the world’s most widely-spoken languages. 

You’ve now done everything you need to do to secure yourself a high-quality, lag-free service to watch Euro 2020 on. All that’s left to do is enjoy the game! 

What time does Austria vs North Macedonia start?

Austria vs North Macedonia starts at 18:00 (17:00 GMT) in Bucharest, Romania on Sunday 13th June 2021. This will be North Macedonia’s debut in a major international tournament, continental and worldwide. 

Netherlands and Ukraine, filling the remaining two places in Group C, play just a few hours later. They will play in Amsterdam, which may give the Dutch team the advantage; home soil tends to help, especially in international tournaments. 

What channel is Austria vs North Macedonia on?

Austrian fans living in the country will be able to watch all the Euro 2020 games on ORF, the country’s public broadcaster. According to sportbusiness.com, subscription streaming service SportKlub has secured the rights to show the games in North Macedonia, but SportKlub says the games will also be available via a national broadcaster. 

ITV is showing the game with English commentary in the UK. It’ll also be free-to-air in other European countries like Spain. Further down in this article you can find a list of the most widely-watched channels in Europe and some information about their Euro 2020 coverage. 

Do I need a VPN to watch Austria vs North Macedonia?

Although most European countries are home to broadcasters airing the game for free, if you live outside of Europe, it’s unlikely the games will be shown on a public broadcaster or free-to-air channel. In the Middle East and North Africa, for example, beIN Sports is the only service showing the games. So, for millions of people around the world, the choices are either a hefty subscription fee paid directly to a subscription/pay-TV broadcaster – or a VPN. 

If a streaming service wants to stream or host some content – anything from a football game to a TV show – they have to secure the rights to do so. These deals are often bound by strict copyright regulations – stemming both from the creators of the content and the countries they want to show it in – and typically the streaming platform doesn’t get to decide where this content can be viewed. 

This is why geo-restrictions exist, and why almost everyone has been redirected to a ‘this content is not available in your country’ page whilst on the web. Many of the channels showing Euro 2020 – like BBC iPlayer – enforce these sorts of geo-restrictions. Sites like this can instate geo-restrictions because device IP addresses, determined by your geographical location, are revealed to websites when users visit them. This means websites can block IP addresses from countries where they do not hold the rights to show a given piece of content. 

A VPN provider helps you get around this problem by rerouting all of your internet traffic through one of its many private servers across the world. Instead of seeing your true IP address, all the websites you visit will see the IP address of the private server. This effectively means you can pretend to be in whatever country a given VPN server is based in, from South Korea to Switzerland and beyond. For Euro 2020, this means you can simply find a country with a service showing the games for free, connect through your VPN and watch it from anywhere in the world free from geo-blocks. 

Stream Austria vs North Macedonia online for free

I know what you’re thinking – I’ll still have to pay for a VPN subscription in order to watch the games. Technically, you’re not wrong – reputable, widely-subscribed to services like ExpressVPN that do everything they say on the tin do require a fee. But another thing ExpressVPN and co. do is offer 30-day money-back guarantees. This means you can subscribe, pay your fee, and then get a full refund as long as you contact their support team within the required time period.

This is great news because Euro 2020 runs for exactly 30 days. This means you can download it at the start and get a full refund once the competition has finished. So technically, you can stream Austra vs Macedonia online for free, as well as all the other games, because you won’t actually incur any long-term cost. 

Why does ExpressVPN do this? Well, the key thing is that they have an excellent product that has a multitude of uses, which means that a lot of people who do download it – fully aware of the money-back guarantee – actually decide to stick with it. I’m sure you’ve already worked out that a provider like ExpressVPN can unblock a lot more than just a good channel to watch the Euros on – it can really expand your streaming capabilities far beyond what you have with a VPN. It’s also great for privacy too, thanks to its excellent security features. 

Why you should avoid illegal streams for Euro 2020

The rise (and price) of pay-tv subscription channels has, unfortunately, steered many football fans into searching for illegal ways to view football all across the world. There are various methods and platforms people use to do this, but they all have one thing in common – they’re dangerous. ProPrivacy strongly recommends you avoid illegal streams because of the risks associated with them. 

Besides being an illegal way to stream sport, many of these sites are infested with malware, adware, and even spyware, and there are countless stories about users getting their personal information lifted through using these sorts of websites. All the ad overlays and pop-ups aren’t just benign byproducts of a dodgy streaming website – they’re a genuine problem. 

Aside from the illegalities and also the dangers, streaming games illegally is a recipe for a poor viewing experience. They’re much more likely to lag, they’re often extremely poor quality, and people who do stream illegally often have to decide between a half-decent picture and commentary in a language they understand. When VPNs with money-back guarantees exist – and you could easily find a beautiful stream for the beautiful game – it’s pointless to put yourself in harm’s way. 

Group C: meet the teams

Austria 

Austria are somewhat of an enigma; they’re never counted amongst Europe’s elite international teams, have an average domestic league yet are on the cusp of being a top 20 ranked FIFA team, and have a squad pulled almost entirely from the German Bundesliga, one of the most exciting, dynamic and competitive football leagues in the world. 

Their tournament record, however, is not great – they’ve only qualified for the European Championships twice and exited at the group stage on both occasions. They haven’t qualified for a World Cup since 2002 either, so they’ll be looking to make the most of this rare opportunity to get out of the group stage. 

This time around, they may fancy their chances of getting out of this group – whether they can get a positive result against Ukraine will likely dictate whether they progress. Bayern Munich’s David Alaba – who plays in defense for his club, but much further up the pitch for his country – is the team’s most gifted player and will look to drive his country into the knockout rounds for the first time. 

Netherlands

The Netherlands previously won the tournament in 1988, when the likes of Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, and Marco Van Basten were running the show. Since then, the best they’ve managed is a third-place finish, narrowly missing out on a place in the final three times 1992, 2000 and 2004. It’s great tournament pedigree, granted, but since then the Oranje have failed to progress beyond the quarter-finals and even failed to qualify for the 2016 tournament. 

Despite the relative weakness of their national league – save the youthful, swashbuckling Ajax squad of recent years – the Dutch will always feel like they’ve got a chance against the best in the world. Juventus center-back Matthijs de Ligt will be expected to hold down the fort in defense, whilst Liverpool midfielder and Champions League winner Georginio Wijnaldum Lyon forward Memphis Depay will be relied on to create sparks further upfield. Considering the quality of the squad, Dutch fans will be expecting their team to top the group, but both Austria and Ukraine may have something to say about that. 

There’s been somewhat of a war of words between Liverpool Manager Jurgen Klopp and Holland boss Frank de Boer regarding the fitness of Virgil van Dijk – widely considered the best defender in the world before a serious Achilles injury ruled him out for the entire 2019/20 season – with the former wanting to pour cold water on the De Boer’s suggestion that the center half might be fit for the competition. A fit Van Dijk could transform Dutch fortunes at the tournament – but further injury could leave Liverpool searching for a long-term replacement for the £75 million man come next season. 

North Macedonia

North Macedonia are this Euro’s minnows. This is their debut at a major tournament, they have the smallest population of any of the qualifying teams and the lowest FIFA ranking out of any team in the competition. A lot of their playing squad will likely be pooled from minor leagues around Europe – including the Macedonian, Cypriot, Hungarian and Croatian leagues – but there are also seasoned La Liga, Serie A, and Premier League players available for selection. 

North Macedonia’s comparative lack of squad stardom didn’t stop the Balkan outfit recording an astonishing 2-1 defeat of Germany in the most recent round of World Cup qualifiers, a sign that The Red Lions can cause even the best in the world some serious problems and thus shouldn’t be taken lightly. Besides, they posted four wins and two draws in qualifying for the tournament, emerging from a group that contained Poland, Slovenia, and fellow Group C rivals Austria before battling through two rounds of qualifying play-off fixtures against Kosovo and Georgia. 

Leeds United defender Ezgjan Alioski will likely prove a valuable asset in a team’s first tournament after three years of ‘murderball’ under talismanic and highly revered coach Marco Bielsa. Up at the other end, 37-year-old Goran Pandev will be hoping the goal he scored in qualifying to send North Macedonia through to the competition proper won’t be his last contribution to an underdog tale that doesn’t seem to be slowing up any time soon. 

Ukraine

Like Austria, Ukraine have only made it to two European Championships previously – and bowed out at the group stage both times. In fact, they’ve only ever won one game in the tournament – a 2-1 comeback against Sweden – when they hosted the competition back in 2012. Currently, they sit just one FIFA ranking behind Austria, setting the scene for one of the closest groups to call in the tournament. 

Andriy Yarmolenko – second to only current manager Andrey Shevchenko when it comes to international goals – has had a season blighted with injuries and poor performances for West Ham, so the Eastern European team may have to look elsewhere for inspiration. There’s unlikely to be a shortage of that, though – Ukraine has a number of players from domestic club team Shaktar Donetsk, who did the double over Real Madrid in the Champions League group stages this year and also ground out a draw against recently-crowned Serie A champions Inter Milan. 

It will be interesting to see if Ukraine succumb to their own low expectations – they haven’t scored in their last five European Championship games, and as aforementioned, have only emerged victorious from a solitary fixture. “This is already an achievement – to get into the group with the strongest European teams,” boss Shevchenko said back in March of last year. Posting a couple of good performances may be seen as a triumph then, when in reality the squad, considering its quality, could perhaps reach for more. 

Group C standings

Teams	PL	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	P
Austria	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Netherlands	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
North Macedonia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ukraine	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0