Euro 2025 favorite Spain chasing history against eight-time champion Germany in semifinals

San Francisco Chronicle​

3 days ago

ZURICH (AP) — World Cup winner Spain has never reached the final of the Women's European Championship. It has also never beaten Germany.
Both those things could change on Wednesday.
Spain plays Germany in the Euro 2025 semifinals in Zurich, knowing that it has never managed to get the better of its opponents in eight previous meetings — five losses and three draws.
'For my experience in the Spanish team in the last seven years, I had the chance to play five times against Germany. We never managed to beat them but I also feel that in those five times we were closer and closer to the victory,' Spain coach Montse Tomé said Tuesday.
'Today we are in another point, they are also a different team. But Germany is always Germany.'
Spain beat Switzerland to reach only its second-ever Euros semifinal — 28 years after its first. After winning the World Cup and Nations League in the past two years, the team is moving closer to adding the European Championship trophy to its collection.
Spain has lost just one of its past 15 matches — winning 12 — since its last encounter with Germany, a 1-0 defeat in the bronze medal match at last year's Paris Olympics.
'Every player tries to find a way to write history,' captain Alexia Putellas said. 'I see tomorrow's match more as an opportunity than revenge.
'The Olympics was a totally different competition. That game will have nothing to do with tomorrow's game. We have the opportunity to beat them for the first time.'
While Spain is favorite to progress, Germany has proved you can never write off the record eight-time European champion.
Germany managed to beat France on penalties in their quarterfinal, despite playing with 10 players from the 13th minute after midfielder Kathrin Hendrich was sent off for pulling an opponent's hair.
And Germany is ready to dig deep to defy the odds again.
'Well I think the performance we have shown is the blueprint of all the matches really,' Germany defender Rebecca Knaak said. 'It's the perfect example of passion, mental strength. All these things are characteristics we exhibit.
'So this is important tomorrow as well and of course we have been prepared on a tactical level as well by the coach and the team," she added. "But the fundamental characteristic has been built in the French match.'
That was actually the second straight time Germany had to play the majority of the match at a numerical disadvantage. Defender Carlotta Wamser was sent off barely half an hour into a 4-1 loss to Sweden in their final group stage match.
Wamser returns but Germany will again have to reshuffle its defense with Hendrich suspended and Sarai Linder joining captain and right-back Giulia Gwinn on the injury list.
Midfielder Sjoeke Nüsken is also suspended after receiving her second yellow card of the tournament against France.
'It says a lot about the team that we accepted every situation as they came along," Knaak said. "There were so many different and unusual situations, and we adapted.
'We supported each other and at the end it doesn't really matter who plays next to whom," she continued, "we are a team and we have the squad for exactly those reasons, that we can adapt and we can adapt to the opponents as well.'
The final will be played on Sunday in Basel.