The DFB team not only loses the last group game, but also Carlotta Wamser. This means bad news for the quarter -finals.
Carlotta Wamser knew exactly what she was expecting now. The German right -back hit the floor several times with her flat hand. Just a few moments earlier, in the 31st minute of the last European Championship group game against Sweden, she had prevented another goal with a reflex-like handball at 1: 2. The result was clear to her: referee Silvia Gasperotti put the 21-year-old off the pitch with the red card.
Germany finally lost the game 1: 4. But it gets worse: Since Wamser flew off the square with smooth red, it will be closed to the quarter -finals next Saturday. National coach Christian Wück now has a big problem to solve.
Because: Wamser himself was actually only the substitute player in her position. Originally, the place to the back of the chain of four belongs to team captain Giulia Gwinn. But after she had contracted an inner ligament tear in the left knee in the first group game against Poland, Wamser moved into the team.
Now the Leverkusen native is also out – and there is no other nominal right -back in the German squad. At the start of the KO round, where the German team with France, England or (only theoretically possible) awaits the Netherlands a real top nation, the national coach must now become creative on the defensive.
TV expert Kathrin Lehmann also looked worried when she explained on ZDF: “The biggest question is of course: How do we solve that now?”
Wück now offers several options: With Sophia Kleinhernen or Kathrin Hendrich, two trained central defenders could be used in the starting eleven backs and are used foreign to the position.
If Wück does not want to risk that, he could put on a chain of five. At least in the second half against Sweden, he chose this variant. The actual left-back Sarai Linder, Janina Minge and the Disgusting Rebekka Knaak formed the central defender trio. Jule Brand and Klara Bühl, who actually play on the offensive wings, were converted into the rail players.
However, according to Wück, it was not an indication that he is also planning with this formation in the quarter -finals. When asked about the game, he answered after the game: “We didn’t worry at all,” he said. “We wanted to finish this game well and we still had the imagination of standing stable with the system change in the back in the second half and maybe getting to the end with our fast outdoor players,” he said.
However, he and the whole team should be clear: With her red card, Carlotta Wamser put the team in a difficult situation. Replacement captain Janina Minge made the young defender under protection: “The red card is a thing that influenced the whole game, but you can’t blame Carlotta,” she said. “She played a great game by then. It was a reflex reaction, could probably have happened to many of us. That’s how it is in football.”