The mini-tournament in England ends with a crisp preview of the European Championship: the DFB women compete with the hostesses.
A soccer classic, floodlit atmosphere and finally a good mood in the stands: The German soccer players can look forward to a real EM appetizer at the end of the preparatory tournament in England.
On Wednesday (8.30 p.m./zdf.de) the DFB women face the endurance test against the hosts in Wolverhampton. It’s the perfect foretaste of summer’s title hunt at EURO in the homeland of football (July 6-31).
“It must be fun to take on the fight in such a packed stadium,” said Joti Chatzialexiou. The sporting director for national teams uses the trip to England to take a close look at the world’s best in women’s football, “which has caught up with us in some areas and perhaps overtaken us in some areas.”
But he also has good memories of the last international match of the DFB women against the Lionesses on English soil. In front of almost 78,000 spectators in Wembley, the record European champion gave the party crasher in November 2019. A last-minute goal by Klara Bühl for the 2-1 victory of the Germans spoiled the evening of the celebrations in the football temple for the English.
In the here and now, after the 1-1 draw against the Spaniards and the 0-1 draw against Olympic champions Canada, the weakened DFB team could use such a prestigious win against the World Cup fourth-placed team.
DFB women want to play for the title
“We’re really happy and hope that a lot of spectators will come and that we’ll play a good game,” said central defender Jana Feldkamp (TSG Hoffenheim) after two games in front of almost empty stands.
The English women have the chance to get in the mood for their big mission in four and a half months by winning the “Arnold Clark Cup”: They want to win their first major title at the European Championships at home. It would be the culmination of a remarkable development.
Fueled by the massive investments made by the big men’s clubs, England is now regarded as the avant-garde of professional women’s football. In the DFB, too, one sometimes looks a little jealous at the progress on the island.
For example, when it comes to data collection and analysis in women’s football. “Because we are a bit of a Neanderthal in our association and also in terms of the data in the Bundesliga as a whole, sometimes lagging far behind in international comparison,” admitted the 46-year-old.
In the future, money will be needed to “become a benchmark again” as a two-time world champion and Olympic champion from 2016. The goal is clear: “We don’t want to play, we want to play for titles, so we have to do our homework.”
The expected German team line-up:
Frohms – Rall, Feldkamp, Oberdorf, Gwinn – Däbritz, Magull, Dallmann – Anyomi, Schüller, Bühl (Brand). – Trainer: Voss-Tecklenburg