The shadow of the recently operated knee will float throughout the European Championship Alexia Putellas. Spain is trying to learn to live without the best player in the world, just as Barça will have to do it all next season. But the road will not be easy. Hours after the Barça and Spanish captain came out of the operating room, her teammates received another hard blow against Germany (2-0), which they still haven’t managed to win. After saying goodbye to first place in the group, they must score points on Saturday against Denmark to go to the next round.
Another early goal
As in the opening game against Finland, they conceded an early goal but, unlike their debut, they were unable to lift the score against an experienced rival, a two-time world champion and eight-time continental champion. With six players from Barça and six from Wolfsburg starting out on the field, it seemed like a rematch of the last Champions League semi-finals. An error by a Barcelona player when they had barely played a couple of minutes marked the match. Sandra Clothsone of the goalkeepers who plays best with her feet, made a poor clearance that Buhl did not miss.
A mistake that sent the entire preparation of the meeting to the brink and that left even more emotionally touched a group that was still digesting the absences of Alexia Y Beautiful Jenny that, in addition to being Ballon d’Or and Silver, they had pulled from Spain to arrive, for the first time, in the favorite wagon in a major tournament. Her teammates missed the talent and personality of both to try to redirect the key match of the group stage.
The players of Jorge Vilda they had the challenge of repeating the history of their debut, where they managed to recover from the rival goal to end up beating Finland 4-1. But the Germans, much more experienced than the Nordics, backed down without complexes and hardly had any shocks in the first half, apart from a shot from outside the area by Mariona that came out licking the top corner and a one-on-one by Lucía García with the German goal that the Basque forward failed to take advantage of.
Without needing to look just through the Paños area, Germany had enough with a corner, headed by their captain Popp, to make it 2-0. Faced with the commitment to football with a Spanish touch, a bad clearance and a corner had been enough for Germany to leave the match resolved. Something more typically German than Oktoberfest.
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The ‘Red’ failed to put fear into her opponent’s body and barely managed to find loopholes in the rival wall. An isolated action by Mariona could have changed the script of the match, but the German goalkeeper repelled her shot with 20 minutes remaining. Vilda desperately moved the bench but his attempts were unsuccessful and the score did not move.
The hostess, on the horizon
A draw on Saturday against Denmark, which beat Finland 1-0 on Tuesday, would be enough for Spain to stay alive, although it could cross paths with England, the fearsome host, in the quarterfinals. The defeat against Germany, in addition to putting a streak of two years and 25 games without losing, is a reality check that shows that, without Alexia at the helm of the ship, being at Wembley on July 31 is an even more utopian feat.
Data sheet
Germany: Frohms; Gwinn, Hendrich, Hegering, Rauch (Kleinherne, d.62); Oberdorf, Dabritz (Dallmann, d.72), Magull (Lattwein, d.46); Huth, Popp (Wassmuth, m.62) and Bühl (Brand, m.87).
Spain: Cloths; Batlle, Paredes, León, Ouahabi; Alexandri (Del Castillo, m.70), Bonmatí, Pebble; S.García (Cardona, m.70), L.García (Pina, m.62) and Caldentey (Guerrero, m.84).
Goals: 1-0. Bühl, m.3 and 2-0. Popp, m.37.
Referee: Stéphanie Frappart (FRA) warned the Germans Rauch (m.27) and Oberdorf (m.86).
Incidents: Match corresponding to the second day of Group B played at the Brentford Community Stadium in London before 16,037 spectators.