Austria coach Otto Baric says his side is "a million per cent" ready to play host to Turkey today, but the Turks remain favourites to win their first ticket to the finals in 47 years.

Austria have so far had luck on their side, with skipper Andreas Herzog scoring an injury-time goal to draw 1-1 against Israel in Tel Aviv last month, despite the team missing 14 players from their regular squad.

Nine of those absentees, who had refused to fly to Tel Aviv over security fears, were snubbed by Baric for this squad.

But tonight Austria face the double challenge of covering Turkey's star striker Hakan Sukur and surviving without their own leading forward, Ivica Vastic, who picked up two yellow cards.

AUSTRIA (probable): Wohlfahrt; Hiden, Winklhofer, Golemac; Herzog, Bauer, Thomas Floegel, Cerny, Lexa; Haas, Wallner.

TURKEY (probable): Rustu; Alpay, Emre Asik, Fatih Akyel; Ercan, Tayfur , Tugay, Basturk, Sergen Yalcin; Hakan Sukur, Arif Erdem.