After last week's disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Slovenia - the first time Israel has ever failed to win an opening Euro qualifying match - Israel can now feel more optimistic about reaching its first-ever Euro finals after soundly beating the second seeded team in the group.
Israel prevailed despite giving the Austrians an early gift. Marko Arnotauvic was left completely unmarked near the penalty spot in the seventh-minute and the West Ham striker slammed a shot past Ariel Harush.
The Israeli keeper denied the Austrians several more goals in a first half in which the visitors were the better team.
But Israel began to press higher up the pitch and the tactic paid dividends as they went into the break with a 2-1 lead after two well-taken headers by Zahavi. The first came in the 34th minute when he stole in to powerfully head home an Eli Dasa cross. On the stroke of half-time Zahavi was left completely unmarked as Dasa floated over a free kick and the Guangzhou striker made no mistake.
Israel came out strongly in the second half and Zahavi completed his hat-trick in the 55th minute with a sweetly struck 25-yard shot that gave Austrian keeper Heinz Lindner no chance. This was the first hat-trick in an Israeli international since 2014 when Omer Damari put three goals past Andorra in a 4-1 win.
Nor was Zahavi finished, in the 65th minute he turned an Austrian defender to set up Moanes Dabour who slotted home the rebound after his first shot was saved by Lindner. Arnotauvic headed a second in the 75th minute after Harush parried a shot but the Austrians never threatened Israel after that.
The victory was a personal triumph for Israel's Austrian manager Andi Herzog. "This was no ordinary match for me," he said. "The second half was amazing but we were lucky in the first half when Ariel Harush made some incredible saves.
"It was a great team performance and that's what's important for me and Zahavi was unbelievable."
"It's great that I was able to bring him back," Herzog added, recalling that Zahavi quit the international team two years ago but agreed to return after apologising for throwing away the captain's armband in protest after a 3-0 home defeat in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
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