The German footballers got off to a dream start against England. It’s 3-0 after half an hour. In the end, the seven-goal spectacle will be close. It is a perfect debut for the new national coach Christian Wück.
Thanks to a furious initial phase, new national coach Christian Wück celebrated a perfect debut at London’s Wembley Stadium. In the 4:3 (3:2) test match against European champions England, captain Giulia Gwinn (4th minute, penalty kick/11th) and Klara Bühl (29th) gave the German footballers a 3-0 lead after less than half an hour. Sara Däbritz (72nd, penalty kick) sealed the Wembley madness. Bavaria’s Georgia Stanway (33rd, penalty kick, 36th) and Lucy Bronze (81st) were successful for the hosts in front of 47,967 spectators.
“We only had three training sessions. The team did very, very well. The girls did a lot of things very well,” said Wück.
Before the game, Wück, who relied on Sara Doorsoun and Janina Minge in central defense, sounded cautious. “You shouldn’t expect that we can implement everything that we might want to change,” the coach said. But his team could – and how!
The “God Save the King” chanted thousands of times had barely faded away when England captain Leah Williamson made a catastrophic bad pass. Debutant Giovanna Hoffmann from RB Leipzig passed the ball to Linda Dallmann, who could only be stopped by a foul from Millie Bright in the penalty area. Gwinn safely converted the penalty.
Bühl silences Wembley
Things continued at a rapid pace, with Dallmann and Bühl in particular, who were extremely keen to play, throwing the English defense into disarray. The 2-0 was outstanding: Bühl, coming from the left, fooled England’s back four, who were completely on her side, with a dream pass to right-back Gwinn, who sent the ball flat into the far corner with her second contact. In return, Alessia Russo missed the connection and her shot hit the post.
Instead, Bühl gilded the German turbo start. From the half-left position of the penalty area, she shot the ball powerfully through the legs of the pitiful Bronze into the near corner, goalkeeper Hannah Hampton was once again powerless. Shouts of “Germany, Germany” from the small DFB supporters echoed through the huge stadium.
It was thanks to Stanway that the England fans, who had meanwhile fallen silent, were able to cheer. First she confidently used a hand penalty caused by Gwinn after video evidence to make it 1:3, and shortly afterwards a dream combination made it 2:3.
Wembley was awake again. The Germans anyway. Shortly before the break, Hampton directed a cheeky Dallmann lob from 30 meters onto the crossbar.
Goalkeeper Berger makes a mistake
The Germans continued their brilliant tempo game at times, with some compromises, in the second half despite a number of substitutions. Selina Cerci, Felicitas Rauch, Däbritz, Pia-Sophie Wolter, Sophia Kleinherne and Vivien Endemann came one by one. Wolter promptly took the penalty after a Russo foul, which Däbritz kicked into the goal. The regular shooter, Gwinn, was already outside.
There wasn’t much more to come from England until goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger dropped the ball after a harmless cross. Bronze dusted off. But the Germans didn’t allow anything more, and at the end of the six-minute stoppage time, Wück was able to celebrate a memorable debut victory.
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