It took just under half-an-hour of the match for the Germany women’s national team to score through Isabel Kerschowski’s sharp shot from 12 yards out and they didn’t look back afterwards, bagging another five before the final whistle to record a 6-0 win against Turkey. Anja Mittag made it 2-0 in the 40th minute and Germany went into the break 2-0 up. After the break, Kerschowski made it three before Alexandra Popp grabbed a brace. Kerschowski rounded off the game and her hat-trick in the third minute of added time at the end of the games to complete the rout. It was the DFB-women’s fifth win without conceding in the qualifiers for the 2017 European Championship in the Netherlands.
“The team were very energetic and never relented, however it wasn’t perfect. We had a couple of very well worked goals. The players showed character against a team that were very anxious to just boot the ball out of the defence,” said Neid when praising her team after the match.
Silvia Neid’s team were denied on many occasions by either the woodwork or the impressive Selda Akgöz in the Turkey goal. The 22-year-old denied a header from Popp in the tenth minute before saving from Kerschowski a couple of minutes later.
Meier denied twice by aluminium
Meier had two attempts come back off the woodwork in the first half. The first was a deflected cross that hit the post in the 16th minute, the second was in the 31st minute when Meier‘s snap-shot rattled the crossbar and the rebound fell to Kathrin Hendrich who fired wide from close range. In between Kerschowski got onto the score sheet for the first time in her six internationals so far and Popp had an attempt blocked. Kerschowski was also involved in Germany’s second goal as her cross from the left was met by Mittag in the six-yard-box and she made no mistake.
The DFB-women took a little while in the second half to turn their dominance into goalscoring opportunities. In the 56th minute, it was a close call for Turkey as Popp found herself alone in front of goal, but she took too long over her shot and the defence managed to get back and get a block in at the deciding moment.
Braces after the break
In the 56th minute, Mittag thought she had won a penalty when she was blocked by a Turkish defender when attempting to shoot at goal, but French referee Florence Guillemin waved play on. They didn’t have to wait much longer for their third though, as a deflected shot from Annike Krahn landed at the feet of Kerschowski who scored from a narrow angle.
With 65 minutes gone Dzenifer Marozsan had a long range strike come back off the crossbar before Popp charged down a defensive clearance from Türkin Erol which flew back off her and just over the hosts’ goal. Kerschowski wasn’t to be stopped though and was back in the action with her second assist of the match when her pin-point corner found Popp who found the back of the net.
Sara Däbritz found herself one-on-one with Akgöz but couldn’t find a finish but it wasn’t long until Popp did make it 5-0 with an artistic finish. There was still time for Kerschowski to celebrate once more as she finished off the rout with a header from close range.