Emily Keogh
BASEL, Switzerland — As Germany’s goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger dropped to her knees, arms stretched out to welcome the embrace of her 22 teammates and coaching staff, the reality dawned: Germany had done the unthinkable.
In the history of the Women’s Euros, no team has ever come back after being down a player — until now. Germany beat France in the quarterfinals after a seven-round penalty shootout on Saturday, despite being down a player for around two hours of gametime.
Veteran German defender Kathrin Hendrich — a player with over 80 caps and at her fifth major international tournament — was shown a straight red in the 12th minute for the petulant hair-pulling of France’s captain Griedge Mbock Bathy. It was a dreadful lapse in judgement, becoming the quickest red card in Women’s Euros history, too, and it set the Germans up for the biggest fight of their lives.
And fight they did. Germany grappled for 120 minutes, with Berger at the heart of the fight back, making nine saves. One of those was an impeccable diving save to her right, arm stretched behind her to prevent an own goal as Janina Minge’s clearance almost ended up in her own net. Since 2013, only Netherlands goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar has had more saves in a Women’s Euros knockout match in 2011.
Germany were not making things easy for themselves. Sjoeke Nüsken had a penalty saved in the 68th minute, and the former champions were struggling in attack with only seven shots, compared to 18 from their opponents.
The majority of referee Tess Olofsson’s calls also went against Germany, with only a few being correct. She called 50 fouls across 120 minutes — but only showed five yellows — making the game too stop and start for either team to really get going.
St Jakob Park had been electric all evening, but the stadium erupted when Germany’s momentum finally gathered in extra time. Despite being faced with a barrage of pacey French attacks, Germany had some of the best opportunities of the evening, and the fans were behind them all the way.
Whistles, shouts and chants flooded the stadium to the point that any French support was being drowned out by echoes of boos and jibes inundating the ground.
Both teams showed impressive travelling support with 34,128 fans in house. They were divided in who they wanted to win, but they were aligned on one thing: the refereeing was inconsistent and shoddy and the vocal supporters made their feelings heard.
Despite this, there was always a glimmer of hope, for Germany against France, with the top European side having a dismal track record in major tournaments.
France have never beaten Germany in a major women’s tournament before, now stretching to 12 losses in 12 games. They did defeat Germany in the Nations League finals, though it was a short-lived victory.
This is the third time France have been eliminated from the Euros in a penalty shootout, too, a thought that likely would have been on their minds as they entered the final stage of the game.
There was a start contrast in the body language between the German and French players as the shootout began. The Germans were confident while the French were nervous, some not looking in the right direction and were visibly shaken as Berger made perfect saves.
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France’s struggles go beyond penalty kicks though. This is the fourth Euros quarterfinal they’ve lost. In nine major tournament quarterfinals, they’ve only surpassed this stage once — during 2022 Euros, when they then lost to Germany in the semifinals.
The French team has, in seven Euros, five World Cups and three Olympics, never made a tournament final. For all of their experience and ability, France have fallen short desperately and unforgivably short in major tournaments. Their form outside of Euros and World Cups poses a stark difference to their lacklustre form when in a competition.
Simply put, it was the quintessential France performance at a major tournament. They had a perfect opportunity served on a platter to take advantage of the eight-time winners with only ten players on the pitch. After facing a red card in the final group stage game to get here, Germany then lost 4-1 to Sweden, proving their weaknesses.
France should have learned from that group stage game, especially, after saving the penalty which would have surely sealed their fate. The opportunity was there to rattle the former champions, but France were unable to take it.
They could not conjure an attack worthy of stealing back a lead. They were consistently profligate, with two goals were disallowed due to offside and only half of their 18 shots were on target. That being said, Germany’s defence was stalwart, organised and they frustrated France, forcing them into poor decision making and applying pressure to make the final touch ineffective.
They will be celebrating long into the night but face a long recovery ahead of them before facing Spain in the semifinal on Wednesday. They will need to figure a plan out quickly, especially as they’ll be without Nusken (yellow car accumulation) and Hendrich (red card) along with Guilia Gwinn’s extended absence (knee injury), as their profligacy in front of goal will not suffice against the World Champions.
France are now back to the drawing board. With their tournament record continuing to get worse, despite significant changes under new manager Laurent Bonadei and a fresh-faced squad, the curse has continued. Perhaps the shock omission of Wendie Renard, Eugénie Le Sommer and Kenza Dali has hurt their campaign more than first realised.
The inquest is unlikely to be pretty, but with a World Cup in two years, France have time to hopefully conjure some answers. Germany, meanwhile, are one step closer to reaching a second-straight Euros final.
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