“Was he offside?” Svenja Huth asked her teammates, who had just stormed towards her and congratulated her. The German national team had just ambushed the Danish goal, Linda Dallmann had played a clever pass into Jule Brand’s path, who passed the ball to the right to Huth, who first shot and then puzzled. Referee Esther Staubli questioned the video referee, who is being used for the first time at a women’s European Championship. And it wasn’t long before Huth’s question was answered, her goal didn’t count. A few minutes later, the DFB women were able to celebrate the 3:0 – Lena Lattwein scored from close range in the 78th minute – and thus a successful start to this European championship, which they won 4:0 (1:0).
“We played ourselves into a frenzy. We are all very satisfied. Our attack pressing worked very well. A 4-0 in the first game is outstanding,” said striker Lea Schüller to ZDF: “I think we always have room for improvement. Now but we’re satisfied.” Substitute captain Alexandra Popp said after the initial win: “I can’t believe it. I’m super happy that we managed to win like that. The team performance was outstanding. We created an incredible number of chances in the first half. The 4-0 was also deserved in terms of height. That makes you want more.”
The ball flew in the right direction early on Friday evening. With every attempt, the Germans got closer to their goal against Denmark and increased the pressure until finally a little spectacle broke out that must have got everyone’s pulse racing. In the tenth minute, left-back Felicitas Rauch shot the crossbar from about 20 meters. Three minutes later she tried again, Latte again. The ball rebounded to Schüller, her shot thundered against the post, but from an offside position.
And so it went on and on, until the ball finally found its target – with a little Scandinavian assistance.
Stine Pedersen had just wanted to bat the ball away in the penalty area, but missed Lina Magull. The midfielder scored Germany’s last European Championship goal in the quarter-finals against Sweden in 2017, and now she’s picking up where she left off in this competition. She grabbed the ball and fired without hesitation. This time the post didn’t get in the way, this time the ball swept past Lene Christensen in the 21st minute to make it 1-0.
Lina Magull hammers the ball into the net for the opening goal.
(Photo: Nick Potts/IMAGO/PA Images)
The start of this tournament was particularly important this year. The German national players had to wait three years for the next big tournament. At the 2017 European Championship and the 2019 World Cup, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals and missed out on qualifying for the Olympics. This chapter of your EM history should be more comprehensive than the last.
National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg trusted the same starting eleven as in the 7-0 win against Switzerland. It had already been shown here that dynamism, joy of playing, creativity and self-confidence had grown during the preparation. Now there was a really good pressing. Driven on by Svenja Huth, who initiated almost all chances at the beginning, the Germans constantly put the Danes under pressure. The 31-year-old represented Alexandra Popp as captain, who was prevented from playing for almost a year by a knee injury, then fell ill with Corona in the training camp and was now initially on the bench. From the observer’s perspective, she saw the expected intense game between the eight-time title holder and Denmark, EM runners-up in 2017, which Popp’s teammates clearly determined.
In front of 15,746 spectators at the Brentford Community Stadium in west London, DFB goalkeeper Merle Frohms was only called upon to make her first real move in the 29th minute, otherwise the defensive line made up of Rauch, Marina Hegering, Kathrin Hendrich and Giulia Gwinn blocked the few attacks at the latest . In general, the interaction worked – as did the standards. In the 57th minute, Lea Schüller headed in after a corner to make it 2-0. Before the game, Voss-Tecklenburg emphasized the quality of her squad, thanks to which she could react to anything. She came on for Lattwein, Dallmann, Brand, Sydney Lohmann and Popp, who scored her trademark 4-0 header in the 86th minute, her first goal in the European Championship.