She will be one of the main threats for the Bleues and their coach, Corinne Deacon, during the semi-final of the Euro football match between France and Germany, Wednesday July 27, at 9 p.m. However, Alexandra Popp almost did not play. Tested positive for Covid-19 on June 15, three weeks before the start of the competition, the captain of the Frauen-Mannschaft, who started the tournament on the bench, owes her salvation only to the withdrawal of her teammate Lea Schüller, in turn affected by the virus.
“Lea Schüller was clearly the number one striker at the start, explains Jan Göbel, journalist for the weekly Der Spiegel. I’m impressed at how much she’s been replaced by Popp. » Headed scorer in Germany’s three group matches – against Denmark (4-0), Spain (2-0), then Finland (3-0) – Alexandra Popp scored again in the last minutes of the quarter-final against Austria (2-0).
4 – Alexandra Popp has become the second player to score in four consecutive appearances at the UEFA Women’s Euros,… https://t.co/SW960Daa8V
The story of the VfL Woflsburg player with the Euros has so far boiled down to a list of missed appointments. Alexandra Popp, who has more than a hundred caps with Germany, is playing her first European tournament at the age of 31. Absent in 2013 and 2017 due to injuries, the striker only escaped an unlucky three pass thanks to the 2021 edition being postponed for a year due to the pandemic.
Affected in the cartilage of the knee in April of the same year, “Poppi” underwent surgery a few weeks later which was once again to prevent him from participating in the competition during the summer of 2021. The postponement of a year of the men’s Euro, originally scheduled for June 2020, had consequences for the women’s tournament, which was postponed by one year as a result. An opportunity for the German, who said then “incredibly grateful to be able to play football again and pursue this passion”.
A bridge between generations
With 118 caps and 57 goals scored, Alexandra Popp is the most experienced player in the group, led since 2018 by Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. She is part of a group in which a third of the players were born after the year 2000. In the absence of the two reference midfielders, Dzsenifer Marozsan and Melanie Leupolz, the captain plays a role of “undisputed and very popular leader” among its young partners, according to the German journalist Jan Göbel.
She multiplies in particular the advice to her partner in attack, the very promising Klara Bühl, just 21 years old, who will however be absent against the Blue since tested positive for Covid-19 tuesday. “His compatriot Lina Magull finds that Popp drags everyone with his mentalityadds Jan Göbel. On the pitch, she represents aggressive pressing, she attacks at all times, and with this presence it is currently impossible to imagine the team without her. »
Not stingy with efforts on the ground, the captain knows “raise the tone” when necessary, or on the contrary “give quieter support to her teammates”as she explains on the website of the German Federation. At the end of the controlled quarter-final against Austria, it was she who chained, all smiles, the speeches in front of the media. The opportunity to place a light tackle on the critics of the German selection. “We started this tournament, and everyone thought we were going nowhereshe recalled at the microphone of DW Sports. But now we are in the semi-finals. The team deserves it because we put a lot of energy on the pitch. »
?️ “We came into the tournament and everyone thought we wouldn’t get anywhere, and now we’re in the semifinal.” He… https://t.co/p5sGRjiItD
The Euro to close the loop
Accustomed to familiarity with the heights of European football at Wolfsburg, a club with which she won two Champions Leagues (she won another with the Duisburg club), six championships and seven German cups, “Popp is already a giant in German football”, assures Jan Göbel, according to whom a victory, Sunday in the final, would constitute a form of consecration for the player. “I don’t think she has anything left to prove to anyone, but such success at this point in her career will be remembered, especially because the German team hasn’t won a title for a few years. »
Arrived in selection in 2010, at the end of two decades of German domination – two victories at the 2003 and 2007 World Cups, as well as eight successes in nine participations in the European championships between 1989 and 2013 -, Alexandra Popp has indeed crossed the less prosperous years of the Frauen-Mannschaft. The only title obtained since by the center forward and her teammates is the gold medal of the Rio Olympics in 2016.
Inhabited by the desire to stop the curse linking her for the moment to the Euro, Alexandra “wish for two wins” to conclude the tournament. It doesn’t matter how. “I don’t care how we playshe told her federation. But if we become European champions then I will be the happiest person ever. » The French, last obstacle before the final, are warned.