interview
The 135-time Swiss international and two-time Champions League winner Lara Dickenmann is the tournament ambassador of the women’s European Championship. In the Sportschau interview, she talks about the increased level of game and the great Nati enthusiasm in the country.
Sportschau.de: Lara Dickenmann, you have followed eight games in the stadiums and others from the television studio. How do you see the level of the tournament and the team?
Dickenmann: The differences in the class of the teams are no longer as big as it used to be, the level has increased and at least in general. Wales as a newcomer cannot keep up – and yet the team never gave up and scored goals against England and France.
Which teams have been particularly convincing so far?
Everything looks so easy with Spain, the performance is enthusiastic – but you shouldn’t forget that there are also hard work behind it. Spain also has both a high individual and a collective class. In addition to the world champions, the achievements of France, England and Sweden were very convincing, these teams protrude for me.
Lara Dickenmann (left, here 2018) played for VfL Wolfsburg from 2015 to 2021 and won ten titles there. From August she will return as a young director.
How did the game pace develop?
There have been improvements tactically. The number of switching campaigns has increased. France, for example, impressively shows how you can quickly create attacks after ball gains. What I always notice: the players have become more athletic. The conditions have improved, many can start their career in a professional manner, that pays off.
The hosts moved into the quarter -finals. How do you rate the team’s performance – and will it be recognized in Switzerland?
I’ve never experienced anything like this in Switzerland and it touches my heart. The team and the trainer were criticized before the tournament because the results in the Nations League were not so convincing. But then the players bravely attacked at the start against Norway. Although the game was lost, they have brought the audience behind and triggered a small euphoria. 12,000 people at a fan in Bern! I could never have dreamed that. And even the game between Poland and Denmark, which was not about anything in sports, the stadium in Lucerne – not exactly a stronghold of women’s football – was very well filled.
Lara Dickenmann on the shoulders of Kathrin Lehmann and Johan Djourou at a marketing event for the start of sales of the EM tickets.
Germany is also in the quarter -finals, but most recently there was a setback with the 1: 4 in the last group game against Sweden. How do you arrange that?
I would have thought that the DFB team would increase from game to game. This has failed to materialize, with the initial phase against Sweden really impressive. Then of course the game was very much influenced by the dismissal against Carlotta Wamser. If you look at the quarter -finals now, France is clearly favorite. But Germany has achieved all of these successes in recent decades. They are anchored in the DNA. If it counts, German teams have often delivered.