European Championship
Victory against Spain: DFB women in the EM quarterfinals
Germany’s soccer players celebrated their second win in their second game at the European Championships in England. Photo: Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The German team put up with the loss of Bundesliga top scorer Lea Schüller at the European Championship. The defense around Marina Hegering doesn’t let anything burn against Spain either – and cheers exuberantly at the end.
With wild determination and a cool head, the German soccer players stormed into the quarter-finals at the European Championships in England.
The team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg also shone in the hit against Spain and defeated the title candidate 2-0 (2-0) on Tuesday evening. This means that the record European champions are the group winners – and can avoid the strong hosts England in the quarter-finals.
After the loss of top scorer Lea Schüller, who was absent due to a positive corona test, Klara Bühl from FC Bayern (3rd minute) and captain Alexandra Popp (37th) from VfL Wolfsburg scored in front of 16,037 spectators in the Brentford Community Stadium.
Before the last group game on Saturday against Finland, the DFB women can already look forward to the first knockout match on July 21st in Brentford against Norway or Austria. Four days after the 4-0 win against Denmark, the German selection convinced across the board and can dream of their ninth European title.
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Voss-Tecklenburg had set up Popp as a striker instead of Bayern striker Schüller, who had tested positive for the corona virus the day before the game. The captain of VfL Wolfsburg played her first European Championship game from the start in her 116th international match – and was celebrated by the fans after being substituted in the 62nd minute.
A blatant bad pass from goalkeeper Sandra Panos helped the German team to take the lead early on. The attentive Bühl scored a low shot to make it 1-0. The two-time world champion tried to stop the opponent’s ball relay with consistent, but also very exhausting pressing. DFB keeper Merle Frohms then survived two tricky situations because the ball went wide of the goal.
Just as the Spaniards began to open up gaps, the German team struck again. After a corner by Felicitas Rauch, Popp headed in, just like in her best days. The 31-year-old scored like in the first game and ran jubilantly in a full sprint to the German bench.
It was only in April that the 2016 Olympic champion returned to the DFB team after a serious knee injury, and then she also had Corona in preparation – and confirmed Voss-Tecklenburg’s tactics with her goal again, which put the versatile Popp back at the top of the table offensive saw.
Spain continued to run the ball well but lacked the determination of Barça stars Alexia Putellas and Jennifer Hermoso. The world footballer (torn cruciate ligament) and the record scorer (internal ligament injury) were sorely missed by their team.
After almost an hour, the Germans complained to the top French referee Stephanie Frappart because Irene Paredes Popp vehemently stopped on the way to the goal. With Tabea Waßmuth from Wolfsburg, Voss-Tecklenburg then brought in a fresh attacker who threw herself in. Goalkeeper Frohms then steered Maria Caldentey’s ball over the crossbar (71′). In Spain, for example, the series of 24 undefeated games against an extremely convincing German selection broke.