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Reuters
21 minutes ago
- Reuters
France's European run ended by familiar foe Germany
BASEL, Switzerland, July 19 (Reuters) - Heartbroken France were left lamenting another European exit at the hands of Germany on Saturday in a stunning 6-5 penalty shootout loss in the Euro 2025 quarter-finals, leaving Les Bleues still searching for their first major tournament title. The loss came despite having a player advantage for most of the game, after Germany's Kathrin Hendrich was sent off for a tug on the hair of Griege Mbock Bathy in the box in the 13th minute. Grace Geyoro's ensuing penalty kick in the 13th minute was France's only goal in a bruising match that was tied 1-1 at the end of extra time. "It's very cruel, it's very difficult," Geyoro said. "We don't realize it yet, and there's a lot of disappointment and frustration at going out like that tonight. We're wondering when it's going to be smiling for us at last. It's difficult, frankly it's hard, that's football. I'm disappointed." The loss conjured memories of Euro 2022 when Germany dispatched France 2-1 in the semifinals before losing to England for the title. Despite the man advantage, France seemed to wither as the minutes wore on against the eight-times European champions. "We're sorry because when you're eleven against ten, you know that your set-pieces, numerical superiority do not exist anymore, so we had to avoid giving them those situations," coach Laurent Bonadei said. "We didn't manage to find the back of the net except for two goals that were flagged offside. It's a shame, we didn't need much. Especially after what we'd done in the group phase, I thought we were getting stronger." France indeed had their chances, with goals by Delphine Cascarino and Geyoro chalked off for offside in each half. Melvine Malard clanged a rocket off the crossbar in the dying seconds of extra time. "I'm obviously disappointed," France goalkeeper Pauline Peyraud-Magnin said. "They were down to ten against 11, so even more disappointed. Finishing on penalties and going out like that is always the worst way to go. "It was a complicated game, they were behind for almost 90 minutes and they were sending warheads up front. "We're a bit down, we've just taken a blow to the back of the head." France's Amel Majri and Alice Sombath had their penalties saved in the shootout, with Sombath's spelling the end of France's tournament, as the heartbroken players collapsed on the pitch. "There's obviously a lot of disappointment," Geyoro said. "We really wanted to go all the way, but unfortunately we stop at the quarter-finals. Leaving the tournament just before the semi-finals is a real blow."
Reuters
22 minutes ago
- Reuters
Germany's Berger seizes her moment in shootout win over France
BASEL, July 20 (Reuters) - Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger embodied her side's spirit of resistance in their Women's Euro quarter-final as they bounced back from an early red card and the concession of a goal to take France to a 1-1 draw over 120 minutes before beating them 6-5 in a shootout that saw her save two spot-kicks and score one herself. The 34-year-old, who has twice beaten cancer, lives by the motto of "All we have is now", and she seized her moment on Saturday, pulling off an incredible save to prevent a second-half own goal and then powering her side through to the semi-finals, where they will face Spain in Zurich on Wednesday. "I was not happy that we had to go to the penalty shootout because I would have loved to have won the game in 90 minutes and have it done and dusted," Berger told reporters before paying tribute to her squad. "I think credit should go to the team, not me, because maybe it (my save) was the decisive moment in the penalty shootout, but we, everyone here, should talk about this with him (coach Christian Wueck) now about the performance of the team, because that was amazing and incredible." Germany midfielder Sjoeke Nuesken had a penalty saved in normal time but converted in the shootout, and she was full of praise for Berger's skills. "She's an amazing goalkeeper. She's so calm, she's so clever. I knew she would save the penalties. She's such an amazing goalkeeper, and we are very happy that she's in our team," Nuesken said. With defender Kathrin Hendrich sent off in the 13th minute for pulling an opponent's hair, the Germans had to battle for more than 100 minutes with one player fewer than their French counterparts, but despite their heroics, Berger did not want to promise that they would beat Spain to make the final. "We do everything one step at a time -- first of all we celebrate, then we focus on Spain, there is a very hard and tough opponent we have to face and everybody really gave their ultimate effort here and we need to regenerate, we have to make sure we recover," Berger explained. "We like the stadium for the final match, and we will continue to progress towards that," she added.
The Guardian
22 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ann-Katrin Berger follows up biblical miracle with penalty heroics for Germany
Ann-Katrin Berger is flying. The ball is flying. A few yards away, near the penalty spot, Clara Mateo of France already has her arms raised in celebration. A heroic German defensive rearguard is about to end in a misdirected defensive header, a looping own goal and a heartbreaking defeat. But a 34-year-old double cancer survivor, largely written off by her own country's media before this quarter-final, has other ideas. The mechanics of the save itself are easy enough to explain. Berger is about five yards out of her goal, and so has to back-pedal furiously while also keeping her eye on the flight. At the last moment, it looks like the ball is about to beat her. Which is the point at which Berger flings herself backwards and upwards, finding every last gram of strength, straining every last muscle, the sort of moment you spend a lifetime training for. She claws it away with her fingers. Falls heavily on her shoulders. Accepts the congratulations of her teammates, who look like they have just seen a biblical miracle. And, you know, perhaps they had. Was this the moment Germany wrote their destiny? It certainly didn't feel that way at the time. Twenty minutes still remained. France still had all the possession and an extra player. But maybe it was the moment when Germany's mission sharpened to the finest of points, when they determined above all that a save of such cosmic brilliance must not be for nothing. It had been an epic night, an excruciating night, and for the depleted, exhausted Germany a night of sheer refusal. Forced to play for almost two hours (including added time) with 10 players after the early dismissal of Kathrin Hendrich, boasting a passing accuracy of just 51%, they withstood one of the deadliest attacks in the tournament with their bodies and every last breath in them. By this point the game had long since ceased to take any recognisable form or shape: just two tired teams finding increasingly creative ways to collide with each other. At one point in extra time the sensational Jule Brand went on a dribble past halfway and, seeing three blue shirts congregating on her, basically changed her mind, let the ball go and decided to get back into position. As for France, it was a night for reverting to type. For confirming every pre-existing stereotype of them. For demonstrating why this team of such incredible individual talent have never been able to fulfil that talent as a collective. Forced to break down a team with no intention of giving them the space in behind they love to exploit, they were utterly devoid of ideas, of creativity, of passing guile, of any real strategy beyond giving it to the wingers and seeing if the next stepover might work any better than the last. Perhaps you could argue that Hendrich's red card for pulling the hair of Griedge Mbock actually simplified Germany's task. Even so, it would have taken a brave seer to predict anything but a French victory at that point, especially after an injury to Sarai Linder at right-back. But her replacement, Sophia Kleinherne was immense, as were the two big pre-match selections by Christian Wück: Giovanna Hoffmann up front and Franziska Kett at left-back. Kleinherne completed just two passes all night, Brand just eight. But of course these were not the key milestones. Try Rebecca Knaak's 13 clearances, Janina Minge's 11, the 16 tackles, Sjoeke Nüsken's first tournament goal. And of course there were nine saves from the hands of Berger, a goalkeeper who could have been cherry-picked for this assignment, one relying less on silky ball-work than on sheer, gravelly defiance. Sign up to Moving the Goalposts No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women's football after newsletter promotion Berger had come in for considerable criticism after some misplaced passes in the 4-1 defeat by Sweden. And of course her old-school style sometimes feels at odds with the more progressive, possession-based kind of football the modern Germany want to play. But give her a goal and she will protect it with her life. She's beaten thyroid cancer twice. She can probably deal with your inswinging cross. As the minutes leaked away, as France had a goal disallowed, as Germany missed their own penalty, the German fans behind Berger's goal slowly began to warm to their task. Increasingly the French players were bearing forlorn expressions, negative body language, crushed by the burden of having to win this match several times over simply to win it once. Or perhaps not at all. Because after two hours and 13 penalties, Berger was flying again. Amel Majri had been the first to fail, then Berger had scored a penalty of her own, and now Alice Sombath had put her kick at a pleasant height, and once more Berger was the commander of angles and time. She palmed the ball away. Rose to her knees. And in the moments before her victorious teammates mobbed her, Berger was simply kneeling there: imploring us to adore her, a woman who through everything had never stopped believing in herself.
