The Germany women’s national team suffered a 3-1 defeat to hosts England in their final match of the Arnold Clark Cup, which was played in Wolverhampton. After the 1-0 defeat to Olympic champions Canada on Sunday and a 1-1 draw in their opener against Spain, Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side ultimately finished in last place in the star-studded group.
Just like against Spain and Canada, Germany went behind early on as Ellen White opened the scoring (15’), but they managed to level the scores thanks to a spectacular free kick from Lina Magull (41’). Germany then had some good chances at the start of the second half before the hosts began to dominate proceedings and got two goals in the closing stages through Millie Bright (84’) and Fran Kirby (90+3’). This victory saw England, who are hosting the 2022 European Championship, to overall victory in the four-team invitational tournament.
A good 13,000 spectators saw both teams make a conservative start to the game at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton, as it was clear that neither team wanted to make any significant errors in the early stages. Germany got their first sniff of a chance five minutes in, as Maximiliane Rall’s cross was just out of reach of Lina Magull. Rall then made an important sprint going the other way to put a stop to England promising attack being led by winger Lauren Hemp (7’). Rall was involved once again just six minutes later, as she called England keeper Ellie Roebuck into action for the first time, who was forced into saving Rall’s header from a corner kick, before Roebuck also did well to keep out a Lisa Magull effort (12’).
Magull scores a brilliant direct free-kick
The match had begun to open up, and winger Hemp continuously tried to create threatening opportunities for her side by driving at the Germany defence and penalty box. She picked out England women’s national team all-time top goalscorer Ellen White in the box, who finished into the bottom corner (15’). The Germany defence were simply giving their opponents too much time and space at this stage of the game, and were also struggling to cope with some strong England pressing, leading to several losses of possession. Although she could do nothing about the goal, Germany keeper Merle Frohms was doing well to keep them in the game, comfortably saving an acrobatic effort from Georgia Stanway in the 25th minute.
Germany then grew more and more into the game, with both Schüller and Rall (32’) having shots on goal, but to no avail. They did, however, have success from a set-piece: Magull curled the ball beautifully over the wall and scored via the underside of the bar (41’) as Germany found an equaliser before the break.
Voss-Tecklenburg brought on Jule Brand for Nicole Anyomi at the start of the second half, and then made a double change in the 72nd minute as Linda Dallmann and Chantal Hagel replaced Magull and Fabienne Dongus in the hope that the fresh legs would help Germany find a spark and create more goalscoring opportunities. However, it was Bright who put the home side in front (84’) before Kirby scored at the end of a solo run to confirm victory for England in the final minute of injury time.
