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On target again: Lina Magull
Photo:
LISI NIESNER / REUTERS
The German soccer players have reached the semi-finals at the European Championships in England.
In the quarter-finals against Austria, the fourth clean sheet in the fourth game was achieved with a 2-0 (1-0) - also thanks to several aluminum hits by the opponent.
Bayern professional Lina Magull scored her second goal of the tournament in Brentford (25th minute), Alexandra Popp used a goalkeeper mistake by Manuela Zinsberger to decide (90th).
Who the German team meets next Wednesday in the semi-finals will be decided on Saturday (9 p.m., TV: ZDF, live ticker: SPIEGEL) between France and the defending champions, the Netherlands.
After the comfortable 3-0 win against Finland at the end of the group phase, national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg rotated some of the regular players back into the starting XI for the first competitive game against an Austrian national team.
Magull, Lena Oberdorf, Felicitas Rauch and Kathrin Hendrich returned to the starting lineup.
After a minute's silence in memory of the late DFB honorary captain Uwe Seeler - the team from Voss-Tecklenburg wore black armbands - the game started with a few powerful minutes from the German team.
But then Austria fought its way into the game better.
The ÖFB selection collected a total of four corners, one of which was extremely dangerous: Marina Georgieva headed the ball against the post (13th).
The Germans often found it difficult against the well-organized Austrian defence, which had conceded just one goal earlier in the tournament.
From pressing to scoring in just a few seconds
Then Alexandra Popp put Austria's goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger under pressure.
Felicitas Rauch headed the goalkeeper's uncontrolled long ball down the left wing, Klara Bühl pushed through with speed and brought the ball from the baseline into the centre.
Popp let the ball through for the better placed Magull, who pushed in to take the lead (25').
After the lead, the DFB-Elf found their usual game control.
The Austrian offensive for the Bundesliga top scorer in 2021, Nicole Billa, hardly got any space.
At the other end, Giulia Gwinn needed just a few seconds after the break to get close to another German goal with a shot off the post.
Latte, post, latte, miss
Austria, however, continued to hold on - and failed twice at the goal posts: After a misplay by Merle Frohms, Barbara Dunst circled a long-range shot at the German goal, the ball rebounded off the crossbar into the field (53.).
Sarah Puntigam hit the post after a corner (57th).
A big chance from Linda Dallmann, who lifted the ball just over the goal during a German relief attack, was called back for offside (69').
With more space, the German team came closer to the second goal than Austria to the equalizer: Zinsberger deflected a cross just in front of Popp's head (77th), Oberdorf failed with a long-range shot by Austria's goalkeeper.
A few moments later, the conspicuous Bühl hit the crossbar (78'), only to be freed up by Popp to narrowly miss the greatest chance since the opening goal (82').
Another strong pressing action tempted Zinsberger to shoot the German – the ball bounced into the goal to decide (90th).
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