Germany reaches the semi-finals – with luck

The game in London-Brentford was overshadowed by the death of Seeler. In memory of the honorary captain, who died at the age of 85, the Germans wore black ribbons. In addition, Seeler was honored with a minute’s silence before kick-off.

“The news of his death affected us,” Voss-Tecklenburg said shortly before kick-off: “I know that he wanted to watch the game. We will play a bit for Uwe Seeler to bring some joy to football in Germany return.”

In front of 16,025 spectators, including Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser and DFB General Secretary Heike Ullrich, the Germans were almost at their best. Only substitute goalkeeper Almuth Schult (febrile infection) was missing, goal scorer Lea Schüller was back in the squad after surviving the corona infection.

The two-time world champions, who had had a flawless group stage with victories against Denmark (4-0), Spain (2-0) and Finland (3-0), made a nervous start. Julia Hickelsberger-Füller scored the first opportunity for Austria (9th), seconds later Popp caused danger on the other side.

The Popp chance brought no rest to the German game. The lead of the Austrians, in whose starting XI there were only current or former Bundesliga legionnaires, was in the air. The German penalty area kept getting dicey, a header from Marina Georgieva landed on the post (13′).

In the middle of the first half, the German team couldn’t find a way to stop the bold performance of the 2017 European Championship semi-finalists. The Germans didn’t like the aggressive pressing by the Austrians at all. Magull’s second tournament goal after strong preparatory work by Klara Bühl and Popp came out of nowhere.

But even the goal didn’t give the DFB-Elf any tailwind, even after half an hour not much went together on the offensive. After all, the defense was better in this phase. The lead at the break was flattering despite the possibility of Svenja Huth (43rd).

Just 16 seconds after the restart, Giulia Gwinn could have calmed the nerves, but the full-back hit the post. On the other side, Barbara Dunst’s long-range shot landed on the crossbar (53′). Just four minutes later, the German case rattled again. Sarah Puntigam hit the post.

In the 64th minute, the injured goal scorer Magull left the field. Five minutes later, substitute Linda Dallmann missed the chance for the second German goal on a counterattack. Bühl hit the crossbar with a powerful long-range shot (78′), a little later she miserably missed the decision from a few meters (82′). Popp took care of this.