The German soccer players are in the semi-finals of the European Championship in England. The team of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg defeated Austria 2-0 (1-0) on Thursday evening. "Even though it was extremely intense today, we deserve it," said team captain Alexandra Popp. "We stuck with it, were in the duels, played forward."
In front of 16,025 spectators at the Brentford Community Stadium, Lina Magull (25th minute) and Popp (90th) scored the goals for the record European champions after a mistake by goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger, who was lucky when the Austrians hit several posts and bars. For Popp it was already the fourth tournament goal. "You just have to celebrate and enjoy that," Magull announced after the game.
In the semifinals next Wednesday in Milton Keynes, the DFB women will meet the winner of the game between France and the defending champions, the Netherlands (Saturday). For the first time under the leadership of Voss-Tecklenburg, the 2016 Olympic champion reached the round of the four best in a major tournament and can hope for the ninth European title. The final will take place on July 31 at London's Wembley Stadium. Hosts England were the first team to reach the semi-finals the day before, beating Spain 2-1.
At the 2017 European Championships in the Netherlands, the German team - at that time still with coach Steffi Jones - failed in the quarter-finals against Denmark, at the 2019 World Cup in France in the same round against Sweden. Austria were in the semi-finals five years ago, but now had to bow to Germany despite eight players from the German Bundesliga in the starting XI. Germany had completed the preliminary round of the European Championship with three wins and 9-0 goals. Against Austria, the defense around goalkeeper Merle Frohms was only lucky to keep a clean sheet again.
After the death of football legend Uwe Seeler, the DFB selection wore black ribbons. There was a minute's silence before kick-off. "The news affected us. I know that he wanted to watch our game tonight, so we are deeply touched and will also play a bit for Uwe Seeler tonight," Voss-Tecklenburg announced to ARD.
