Germany’s women retained their flawless record in their seventh match in World Cup qualifying Group 1 with a 4-0 win over Slovenia. By recording their seventh successive victory, qualification for next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada (6 June to 5 July 2015) is all but assured.
“The players wanted the win and gave it their all, so I was very relaxed,” Neid told ARD. “We created many chances but our finishing wasn’t accurate enough. That said, we scored four goals against a defensive side, so I’m happy with that.”
In front of a vocal crowd of 7,122 in Mannheim and with four changes made to the starting line-up, Germany went on the offensive from the start, pushing their underwhelming performance in last Saturday’s narrow 3-2 win over Republic of Ireland to the back of their minds. However, faced with a Slovenian team content to sit extremely deep and defend, Neid’s side were unable to create more than Bianca Schmidt’s shot from the edge of the area in the opening exchanges. Eighteen minutes passed before the home side finally broke the deadlock, as Melanie Leupolz’s header sailed over goalkeeper Lucija Mori from a corner to give Germany a well-deserved lead. In October’s reverse fixture in Koper, the score was already 3-0 at that point, with Silvia Neid’s team going on to post a record 13-0 World Cup qualifier victory.
The first goal seemed to open the floodgates, with the increasingly alert Germans creating goalscoring opportunities almost by the minute to heap pressure on the Slovenians. Celia Sasic, returning to the side after recovering from a bruised shin, forced Mori to make a brilliant save in the 19th minute, before Anja Mittag doubled her side’s lead just two minutes later, steering Schmidt’s throw-in into the net. Sasic and Lena Lotzen continued to test Mori in the minutes that followed, giving Slovenia little relief, although the visitors began to deal with the European champions more effectively as half-time approached.
Another tentative start in second half
With Alexandra Popp and Simone Laudehr replacing Leupolz and Schmidt at half-time, the siege of Slovenia’s goalmouth continued apace. By this stage, the visitors were intent on limiting the damage, and succeeded for some time, with Lotzen, Sasic and their team-mates unable to breach the defence in the early part of the second half. Eventually, Lotzen capitalised on an error in the Slovenian defence to add Germany’s third goal in the 63rd minute, before Mittag added her second and the team’s fourth four minutes later with a cleanly-struck shot from 15 metres out.
After taking a 4-0 lead, the two-time world champions shifted down a gear, allowing Slovenia to push forward occasionally. It was the 72nd minute before FIFA World Player of the Year Nadine Angerer was required to make a meaningful save, and she was enthusiastically cheered by the Mannheim crowd each time she touched the ball.
Among the many happy faces at the Carl Benz Stadium, Pauline-Marie Bremer’s smile was perhaps the biggest of all. The Turbine Potsdam striker made her first senior international appearance on her 18th birthday and showed much promise during her 30 minutes on the pitch.