The Germany women’s national team will come up against their Russian counterparts in Moscow this Friday (18:00 CEST) in their seventh European Championship qualifier. Germany have not played as many games against any other opposition without losing. The women’s side have already secured qualification for EURO 2017 in Hungary as well as winning the Gold medal in Rio this summer. However the Russian hosts are also in good shape, sitting in second place in group 5 and are still unbeaten in the Khimki Arena. DFB gets to grips with all the facts and figures ahead of the game.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Germany haven’t lost a single one of their 18 international games against Russia, winning 16 in the process. The national team have not played as many games against any other opposition without losing. In September 2013 Russia were subjected to their biggest ever defeat in their history when Germany beat them 9-0 in the World Cup qualification game. The goalless draw against Russia in the return leg of the European Championships in November 1992 was one of the 11 clean sheets that German have kept against Russia in their 18 encounters. The European qualifier in Wiesbaden was the last meeting between the two teams. Germany sealed victory in that game last October 2-0 with goals from Mandy Islacker (8’) and Leionie Maier (48’).
DEBUT AFTER 111 APPEARANCES: After 169 games under Silvia Neid the women’s team ahve a new head coach in Steffi Jones. She is the national team’s fourth coach after Gero Bisanz (127 games in charge), Tina Theune (135 games) and Silvia Neid. Not only have all three of Jones’ predecessors occupied the post for more than 100 games, but average time as coach has been over eleven years. Jones herself played 111 time for Germany, the same number of games as Silvia Neid, scoring nine goals in the process. Her international career for Germany spanned between 1993 and 2007 and she played under all three of her coaching predecessors. She was given her debut in the 3-1 defeat to Denmark in the Italian town of Cesenatico. Back then she was playing alongside Silvia Neid.
DEBUTS GALORE: Steffi Jones could hand out three debuts in her opening game in charge. Linda Dallman, Jacqueline Klasen (both SGS Essen) and Hasret Kayikci (SC Freiburg) are all in contention to play. Meike Kämper (MSV Duisburg) is also an uncapped player. All of Jones’ predecessors secured wins in their debut matches in charge. Gero Bisanz won his first game in charge beating Switzerland 5-1 in October 1982, Tina Theune won her first game in August 1996 beating Holland 3-0, while Silvia Neid began her managerial reign with a 3-1 win over Canada in September 2005. However Jones is the first of these head coaches to be starting her reign with a competitive fixture.
The Germany women’s national team will come up against their Russian counterparts in Moscow this Friday (18:00 CEST) in their seventh European Championship qualifier. Germany have not played as many games against any other opposition without losing. The women’s side have already secured qualification for EURO 2017 in Hungary as well as winning the Gold medal in Rio this summer. However the Russian hosts are also in good shape, sitting in second place in group 5 and are still unbeaten in the Khimki Arena. DFB gets to grips with all the facts and figures ahead of the game.
HEAD-TO-HEAD: Germany haven’t lost a single one of their 18 international games against Russia, winning 16 in the process. The national team have not played as many games against any other opposition without losing. In September 2013 Russia were subjected to their biggest ever defeat in their history when Germany beat them 9-0 in the World Cup qualification game. The goalless draw against Russia in the return leg of the European Championships in November 1992 was one of the 11 clean sheets that German have kept against Russia in their 18 encounters. The European qualifier in Wiesbaden was the last meeting between the two teams. Germany sealed victory in that game last October 2-0 with goals from Mandy Islacker (8’) and Leionie Maier (48’).
DEBUT AFTER 111 APPEARANCES: After 169 games under Silvia Neid the women’s team ahve a new head coach in Steffi Jones. She is the national team’s fourth coach after Gero Bisanz (127 games in charge), Tina Theune (135 games) and Silvia Neid. Not only have all three of Jones’ predecessors occupied the post for more than 100 games, but average time as coach has been over eleven years. Jones herself played 111 time for Germany, the same number of games as Silvia Neid, scoring nine goals in the process. Her international career for Germany spanned between 1993 and 2007 and she played under all three of her coaching predecessors. She was given her debut in the 3-1 defeat to Denmark in the Italian town of Cesenatico. Back then she was playing alongside Silvia Neid.
DEBUTS GALORE: Steffi Jones could hand out three debuts in her opening game in charge. Linda Dallman, Jacqueline Klasen (both SGS Essen) and Hasret Kayikci (SC Freiburg) are all in contention to play. Meike Kämper (MSV Duisburg) is also an uncapped player. All of Jones’ predecessors secured wins in their debut matches in charge. Gero Bisanz won his first game in charge beating Switzerland 5-1 in October 1982, Tina Theune won her first game in August 1996 beating Holland 3-0, while Silvia Neid began her managerial reign with a 3-1 win over Canada in September 2005. However Jones is the first of these head coaches to be starting her reign with a competitive fixture.
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QUALIFICATION SECURE: With six wins in six games Germany have dominated group 5 scoring 30 goals and astonishingly conceding none. It means the side have secured first position in their group with two games to spare. Qualification for the EUROS is therefore secure. The Germany women’s team have now qualified for the tenth time in a row. This record is surpassed only by the Norwegians who have qualified eleven times in a row. The Russians, who occupy second place in the table, have also guaranteed their position as they lead Hungary by 3 points but have an extra game in hand and a superior head-to-head record. However the Russia team will be keen to pick up as many points as they can in order to qualify as one of the six best second placed teams in order to proceed directly for the tournament. The two worst placed group runners off will contest a paly-off match to confirm the last available place.
HAPPY RETURNS: Steffi Jones has never played in Russia. She has however played against Russia three times before, recording three wins. Her only competitive game against the Russians was a 5-0 in the group stage of EURO 2001 in Erfurt. In each of those games Jones came up against Elena Formina who is the current head coach of Russia. Formina has lost all five of her games against Germany. She also lost 3-1 in a friendly against Jones’ Germany in September 1999.
THE OPPOSITION: The Russia women’s national team was still a part of the Soviet Union when it was founded in 1990. Their first ever game ended in a 4-1 victory away to Bulgaria in Kasanlak. The biggest win Russia has recorded was in August 2010 when they crushed Kazakhstan 8-0. They repeated the same scoreline in March 2012 against Macedonia. Their biggest defeat was the 9-0 drubbing at the hands of the Germany team in September 2013. Russia’s best ever results on the international stage were quarter finals in both the World Cup (1999, 2003) and the EUROS (1993, 1995 within qualifying). In three of those quarter finals, the Russians were defeated by Germany (EURO ’93, ’95 and the 2003 World Cup), as well as being defeated by China in the 1999 World Cup. Russia has qualified four times for the finals of the European Championships (1997, 2001, 2009, 2013) but have left the tournament after the group stages on all four occasions. Current head coach of the Russians Elena Formina took over from Sergei Lavrentyev in October 2015. The former captain of Russia herself played 109 times for her country and took part in both of Russia’s World Cup finals campaigns. She is level with Olga Letjuschowa as Russia record goalscorer in World Cup finals with three goals. Alongside her head coach role with Russia she also holds office with WFC Rossiyanka. Russia’s most capped player is Svetlana Petko who played 144 times for her country from 1992 until 2004. Russia’s record goalscorer is Natalia Barbashina who has found the net 46 times. The national side currently occupies 22nd place in the FIFA world rankings table, 20 places behind the second placed Germany
FORTRESS KHIMKI: Located in the town of the same name, the Arena Khimki located on the doorstep of Moscow will play host to a Germany national team for the first time. Opened in 2008 the stadium is currently the home for the Dynamo Moscow men’s side until their Dynamo-Stadion’s renovations are completed in 2017. For the last six years CSKA Moscow have also used the Arena Khimki as their home ground, but moved out this September after the ZSKA Arena was completed. The stadium can hold up to 18,636 spectators and was the chosen venue for the 2009 Russian cup final, where CSKA Moscow beat Rubin Kazan 1-0 . The Russia women’s national team are still unbeaten in Khimki. In four games there, the side has won three and drawn one, with the last three games all being victories.
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FORM AND TRENDS: Germany have lost one of their last 73 European qualifiers (63 wins, nine draws) – the only defeat was a 3-1 loss on 2nd May 1996 against Norway. The women’s national team have won 34 of their last 35 games, with the only blip being a 2-2 draw against Spain in November 2011, with the last 12 all being won without conceding. The DFB team have also scored in each of their past 40 European qualifiers with a total of 212 goals overall (5.3 per game on average),only conceding eleven during this time. The last time they failed to score was in a 0-0 draw with Norway on 6th July 1996. Germany have won ten of their last 12 competitive fixtures (one draw, one defeat), scoring 44 and conceding only six. The DFB-team have won 28 of their last 29 matches away from home, with the 2-2 draw with Spain on 24th November 2011 the only game not ending in a German victory. The last defeat was a 3-2 against Norway on 17th June 1998 during World Cup qualification. Russia have only lost in one of their past 13 home matches (eight wins, four draws), which was the 4-1 defeat to Germany in Moscow on 13th September 2014 during the World Cup qualifiers. Russia have been unbeaten in their last five games since the 2-0 loss to Germany in Wiesbaden back in October (three wins, two draws).
CELEBRATIONS AND RECORDS: Anja Mittag is two away from 48 goals, which would put her sixth in Germany’s all time goal scorers, level with Silvia Neid. If she plays against Russia it will also be her 145 international, putting her eighth for her country overall for caps. Currently, Germany have scores 1249 international goals and a victory over Russia would be their 75th away win.
GOAL MACHINE AGAINST MISFIRING ATTACK: Germany have scored the most goals in European qualification so far with 30. As well as Germany, only Iceland, France and Sweden are still yet to concede. Russia have hit the back of the net 14 times in the tournament so far – all other teams have scored at least 16 goals so far in qualification. The DFB women have score five of their last seven goals in the second half of matches.
HISTORICAL DAY: The last game that Germany played on the 16th September was in the year 200, when they beat Australia 2-1 in Canberra during the group stages of the Olympics
