The dream of the final in Wembley in front of 87,200 spectators is alive with the German footballers – but a small final is already at the start of the European Championship.
In the first group game against runner-up Denmark on Friday (9 p.m. / ZDF and DAZN), the DFB women go under a lot of pressure. However, if you look at the faces of the players these days, you will see anticipation and optimism above all. An early tournament exit – of course, no one speaks of this horror scenario.
“We know what we can do and we want to go through with our plan,” said Martina Voss-Tecklenburg ahead of the women’s national team’s 500th international match. “It will be a big task for us, but we will put all our energy and will into the game.” The national coach had – with corona restrictions – three years since the 2019 World Cup quarter-finals to prepare her team for this European Championship. And finally three training camps.
DFB women on the way back to the top of the world?
Nobody denies that the 54-year-old has worked meticulously. The group constellation does not make their task easy: Four days after the game against Denmark, the title candidate from Spain is also in London’s Brentford district, but first has to put up with the cruciate ligament rupture of world footballer Alexia Putellas. The last preliminary round opponent for the record European champions from Germany, who have won the title eight times, is Finland on July 16.
Voss-Tecklenburg’s assistant Britta Carlson sees the DFB women on the way to the top class again – although the international comparison was missing recently due to the missed Olympic Games. “It was always our goal to be ready for the title. We’ve now seen that we’re on the right track,” said the 44-year-old former international. “It might be a cliché, but I think we’re a real tournament team.” Of course, she knows only too well “that the first game here is very, very important for us.”
The 7-0 win in the most recent friendly against Switzerland gave the team the confidence they lost after the 3-2 defeat in Serbia in the World Cup qualifiers. The fact that coming together was sometimes a painful process is shown by the long-term TV documentary “Born for this – more than football” about the team that has just started: Tears sometimes flowed after speeches, because Voss-Tecklenburg cursed mightily on the sidelines, because demanded the team more training on the pitch, Lena Oberdorf defended herself against the constant tactical instructions of the national coach with the words: “Leave me alone! Let me play!”
Regular eleven stands – question marks behind the defense
The only 20-year-old Oberdorf from VfL Wolfsburg plays a very central role as number 6. The starting eleven is practical: with Sara Däbritz and Lena Magull in attacking midfield, with Bundesliga top scorer Lea Schüller, her Bayern colleague Klara Bühl and the experienced Svenja Huth in attack. Especially on the offensive, Voss-Tecklenburg still has many alternatives in Laura Freigang, Jule Brand, Tabea Waßmuth and captain Alexandra Popp, who was temporarily absent in the preparation due to Corona.
The big question is how the little-rehearsed back four in front of goalkeeper Merle Frohms will fare in the stadium, which is packed with around 13,000 spectators: Defense chief Marina Hegering was injured for a long time and only played one game in the second half of the Bundesliga season. Kathrin Hendrich is the second central defender, Giulia Gwinn and Felictas Rauch will probably play on the outside. Among other things, Denmark storms with Europe’s two-time “soccer player of the year”, the former Wolfsburg player Pernille Harder from Chelsea.
But don’t worry. “We have very, very good energy in our team,” emphasized FC Bayern’s Gwinn. And Freigang from Frankfurt said: “The most important thing is that we are convinced of our own quality – and we definitely are. We always do our best anyway.”