- The Germans convince in their first European Championship game and win against Denmark 4:0.
- The Danes, still in the final at the last European Championships, cannot keep up with the record European champions.
- In the other Group B match, Spain beat Finland 4-1.
With this gala appearance, Germany sent a clear message to the competitors at the European Championships: This team of Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, ex-coach of the Swiss national team, wants to win the title in England.
Against Denmark, still in the final at the EM 2017 with then coach Nils Nielsen, the Germans showed an almost flawless performance and won easily 4-0.
Two crossbar hits at the start
Right from the start they played clearly better and convinced with consistent pressing. In the first quarter of an hour, they initially failed twice on aluminum: defender Felicitas Rauch only hit the crossbar with long-range shots in the 10th and 13th minutes.
Lina Magull finally redeemed her colors in the 21st minute. After winning the ball just before the penalty area, she took off and gave Lene Christensen no chance in the Danish goal with a powerful shot.
Little came from Denmark in the first round. Signe Bruun had the only dangerous chance in the 29th minute, when she forced the German keeper Merle Frohms to make a brilliant save with her volley. Germany should actually have led higher at half-time – they fixed that in the second half.
Pop the decision
Because the Germans pressed and the Danes continued to disappoint. The deserved 2-0 came in the 57th minute after a corner kick from Magull when Lea Schüller converted a header. Lena Lattwein (78th) made everything clear with her shot in the short corner and the 3-0.
The end of this successful evening from a German point of view was set by Alexandra Popp in the 86th minute. The Champions League and Olympic winner made her first appearance at the European Championships at the age of 31 – and 25 minutes after being substituted on, she completed a nice combination with her head to make it 4-0. Popp had missed previous European Championships due to injury.
This is how it goes
After the first matchday in Group B, Germany is ahead thanks to the better goal difference Spain, who defeated Finland (4-1), at the top.
The opening games of Group C are on the program on Saturday: Switzerland will also start the tournament at 6 p.m. against Portugal. At 9 p.m. there will be a duel between the defending champions from the Netherlands and Sweden. Both games can be seen live on SRF Zwei and in the SRF Sport App.