Voss-Tecklenburg: “It won’t be a walk in the park”
But the Austrians “will run until they drop,” warned captain Alexandra Popp, who has scored a goal in every preliminary round game. The 31-year-old from VfL Wolfsburg could play again from the start. Goalscorer Lea Schüller from FC Bayern Munich completed the final training after being isolated for almost a week in the team hotel due to a positive corona test. Sometimes you can “overcome your weaker self quite well, then fitness may not play a role, but willpower. And there is no question that she has a great will,” said Voss-Tecklenburg.
The Wolfsburg players Lena Oberdorf and Felicitas Rauch, who were recently suspended, will definitely return to the team. Substitute keeper Almuth Schult is missing because of a fever. “It won’t be a stroll in any direction,” said Voss-Tecklenburg despite all the optimism.
The cursed quarter-finals of recent history are warning enough for the two-time world champion and Olympic champion from 2016: At the 2017 European Championships in the Netherlands, the DFB selection failed on the way to the semi-finals against Denmark, at the 2019 World Cup in France against Sweden. And the association still remembers the 0-1 after extra time against the eventual title winners Japan at the home World Cup in 2011, which tore the hosts from all their dreams.
“Burning for the game against Germany”
“Our players are dying to play against Germany,” said Austria’s national coach Irene Fuhrmann. “We will fight to the end and sacrifice ourselves for our little country,” announced Nicole Billa somewhat martially. The attacker from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim was Bundesliga top scorer in 2021 and “Footballer of the Year” in Germany and Austria and brought her team to the quarter-finals with the goal against Norway.
After that, her colleagues even dragged their oversized amplifier onto the lawn and turned it up to Rainhard Fendrich’s “I am from Austria” (“I am from Austria”). In 2017, Austria Women reached the semi-finals of the European Championship after beating Spain on penalties. There, too, they forced a 0-0 draw against Denmark until the end of extra time, before failing from the point.
Against Germany they want to “appear courageously, not hide and make the game open,” said Sarah Zadrazil from FC Bayern. She is one of 13 players from the Bundesliga in the squad, plus former players like long-time Munich player Carina Wenninger. The Austrians are also prepared for a penalty shoot-out this time. National trainer Fuhrmann reported on a “focus with our sports psychologist on the subject”.