The DFB-Frauen have reached a European Championship final for the ninth time. Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s team defeated France 2-1 in Milton Keynes on Wednesday night to book a place in Sunday’s final against hosts England at Wembley (18:00 CEST). The hero on the night was the fantastic Alexandra Popp with a brace (39’, 76’) – her fifth and sixth goals of the tournament already. France had equalised just before half time via an unfortunate Merle Frohms own goal (44’).
Voss-Tecklenburg was forced into one change from the quarterfinal win over Austria. Klara Bühl missed out due to testing positive for Corona and was replaced by Jule Brand on the wing.
France looked to play down the flanks to make use of their speedy wingers, whilst Germany looked for chances to counter initially. The first 20 minutes or so were mainly played in the middle of the park. The first real notable shot on goal came in the 22nd minute for Germany. Alexandra Popp tested out goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin with a free-kick that she tipped just past the post.
Felicitas Rauch then tried her luck from a free-kick slightly further back, though that cleared the French goal comfortably (27’).
Germany’s first really good move of the night resulted in the opening goal. Svenja Huth floated a cross into the box and Popp met it on the volley to crash the ball home (39’). This meant that the Wolfsburg forward kept up her run of scoring in every game so far at the tournament. Just as it looked like Germany would go into the break with the lead, a freak own goal got France back on level terms. Kadidiatou Diani let fly from the edge of the box and her shot rebounded off the post onto Frohms and into the back of the net (45’) – the first goal Frohms and Germany had conceded at the tournament.
The first opportunity of the second half belonged to Germany. Svenja Huth couldn’t direct her shot on target on her left foot from a tight angle and only found the side-netting (47’).
France’s most dangerous moments of the second half came within a minute of one another. Kathrin Hendrich managed to block Selma Bacha’s powerful shot with her face from a few yards out (63’) and then Frohms was on her toes to block Renard’s header from the resulting corner (64’). A sloppy pass from Hegering gave Diani an opportunity three minutes later, though she met her match in Germany’s number one.
Following this period of French dominance, Voss-Tecklenburg made a double change, bringing on Sydney Lohmann and Linda Dallmann for Magull and Däbritz. They helped to calm the game down and eventually Germany got their noses in front again. A bullet header from Popp got her sixth of the tournament and her second on the night with just 15 minutes left to play.
France threw everything they had at the Germany defence, and saw Bacha have a long-range shot just go over (80’). Sara Doorsoun came on for Hegering (81’) and Tabea Waßmuth for Huth (90’) in the closing stages. Despite France pushing for a goal, it was Germany who almost added another. Huth played it across to Dallmann, whose shot narrowly went wide in injury time.
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