The German footballers and Christian Wück said goodbye to the European Championship year with disappointment. The new national coach’s team lost 1:2 (0:1) in Bochum to Italy after two serious mistakes. In front of 15,125 spectators in the Ruhr Stadium, Agnese Bonfantini gave the guests the lead in the eleventh minute. US professional Felicitas Rauch equalized in the much better second half (51′), before Sofia Cantore scored the winning goal (74′).
For the 51-year-old Wück, it was the second defeat in his fourth international match as successor to interim national coach Horst Hrubesch. At its premiere, the DFB team won furiously against England 4-3 at Wembley, then lost 2-1 against Australia. Most recently there was another 6-0 win in Switzerland. The Nations League continues against the Netherlands in February. But everything for the Olympic bronze medalist is geared towards the European Championships in July in Switzerland.
For the next tournament, Wück continued to experiment: With goalkeeper Ena Mahmutovic from FC Bayern, he presented the fourth debutant in four days – but in the end she made a serious mistake. Sophia Winkler from SGS Essen made her debut between the posts against Switzerland. Olympic goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger is currently taking a break. Munich midfielder Alara Sehitler, 18, and Freiburg striker Cora Zicai, 20, also played their first international match in Zurich.
Zicai came on as a substitute again – but this time he failed to score. Laura Freigang was the playmaker in the starting line-up: the Frankfurt player scored two goals against Switzerland. The ex-Duisburg player Mahmutovic was powerless at the early 0-1: Central defender Sarai Linder made a mistake in her own penalty area and played the ball to Michela Cambiaghi. Bonfantini served her.
The Italians had recently fought to a 1-1 draw against the world champions from Spain, so they went about their work with confidence and venom. Freigang had good scenes at the beginning, but after that her colleagues also had a hard time in the build-up game. Giovanna Hoffmann initially didn’t reach the many high balls either. The center forward from RB Leipzig came into the team for goal scorer Lea Schüller. The Italians held up mightily – the DFB players went into the break without a single real chance to score.
Immediately after the restart, Klara Bühl had a clear path, but shot at goalkeeper Laura Giuliani. Rauch made it better with his head and equalized. The DFB women continued to storm determinedly – Bühl almost made it 2-1 twice. Vivien Endemann shot past the goal while exploiting her chances. Mahmutovic then lost the ball to Cantore and the German team was suddenly behind. The post was in the way of a shot by substitute Schüller.
