The German soccer team will have four new players in the starting XI for the final group game of the European Championship against Finland.
Compared to the 2-0 win against Spain, national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg switched to three defensive positions on Saturday evening in Milton Keynes. Lena Lattwein (all VfL Wolfsburg) plays for the suspended Lena Oberdorf and Felicitas Rauch on the six and Frankfurt’s Sophia Kleinherne as a left-back. In addition, Sara Doorsoun (Eintracht Frankfurt) replaces Kathrin Hendrich from Wolfsburg in central defence.
As expected, Linda Dallmann replaces her ailing Bayern colleague Lina Magull, who is on the bench, in attacking midfield. “We had to react to our failures, that’s what we did,” said Voss-Tecklenburg before kick-off on ZDF: “But we had to keep the balance.”
The striker is again occupied by captain Alexandra Popp. Goal scorer Lea Schüller is missing after a positive corona test. The defensive chief of the German selection is again Marina Hegering from FC Bayern Munich, although the 32-year-old starts the game with a warning and would miss another one in the first knockout round.
The game is no longer relevant for the table. The DFB women have already reached the quarter-finals next Thursday against Austria, Finland is eliminated. But Voss-Tecklenburg made it clear again: “This is anything but a friendly game, this is a European Championship game and we want to play it with clear dominance.”