The Germany Women’s U19s have now achieved both of their initial goals at the Euros in Israel. With a 1-0 win over Spain in the final group game in Rishon Le-Zion, Maren Meinert’s team have progressed to the semi-finals and also booked their ticket to the U20 World Cup in 2016. They will now face Sweden in the semi-final on Saturday (18:00 CEST), and the second semi-final between France and Spain will take place afterwards at 20:30 CEST.
Victorious coach Meinert was happy and relieved after the narrow victory over the Spaniards. “That was a tight affair at the end, but we should’ve made it 2-0 earlier to save ourselves the nerves,” says the coach. “I’m very happy with the performance of the team at this tournament, but we’re still lacking cleverness. We have to work on that.”
Own goal smoothes way into semi-final
The Spaniards had shown their goal threat in the previous two games by scoring seven goals, and they began energetically in Rishon Le-Zion. Nahikari Garcia had the first good chances of the game, but as the game went on, the balance of play began to shift in favour of the young Germans.
The opening goal came in the 39th minute when a shot from Felicitas Rauch was stopped by Spanish keeper Elena de Toro, but the rebound deflected off her teammate Rocío Gálvez and into the net. The Spanish responded by taking the attack to the Germans, but Alba Redondo couldn’t keep the ball down to steer the ball into Lena Pauels’ well guarded goal just before halftime.
In the second half it was Germany who had the greater chances. Saskia Matheis just failed to make it 2-0 with her effort in the 59th minute before Nina Ehegötz shot straight at de Toro minutes later. Spain cranked up the pressure again in the closing minutes. Andrea Sanchez was not accurate enough with her effort and substitute Laura Ortega was denied by Lena Pauels with five minutes remaining. That meant it was the Germans who could celebrate, and it was a double celebration – reaching the semi-finals and the World Cup.
The Germany Women’s U19s have now achieved both of their initial goals at the Euros in Israel. With a 1-0 win over Spain in the final group game in Rishon Le-Zion, Maren Meinert’s team have progressed to the semi-finals and also booked their ticket to the U20 World Cup in 2016. They will now face Sweden in the semi-final on Saturday (18:00 CEST), and the second semi-final between France and Spain will take place afterwards at 20:30 CEST.
Victorious coach Meinert was happy and relieved after the narrow victory over the Spaniards. “That was a tight affair at the end, but we should’ve made it 2-0 earlier to save ourselves the nerves,” says the coach. “I’m very happy with the performance of the team at this tournament, but we’re still lacking cleverness. We have to work on that.”
Own goal smoothes way into semi-final
The Spaniards had shown their goal threat in the previous two games by scoring seven goals, and they began energetically in Rishon Le-Zion. Nahikari Garcia had the first good chances of the game, but as the game went on, the balance of play began to shift in favour of the young Germans.
The opening goal came in the 39th minute when a shot from Felicitas Rauch was stopped by Spanish keeper Elena de Toro, but the rebound deflected off her teammate Rocío Gálvez and into the net. The Spanish responded by taking the attack to the Germans, but Alba Redondo couldn’t keep the ball down to steer the ball into Lena Pauels’ well guarded goal just before halftime.
In the second half it was Germany who had the greater chances. Saskia Matheis just failed to make it 2-0 with her effort in the 59th minute before Nina Ehegötz shot straight at de Toro minutes later. Spain cranked up the pressure again in the closing minutes. Andrea Sanchez was not accurate enough with her effort and substitute Laura Ortega was denied by Lena Pauels with five minutes remaining. That meant it was the Germans who could celebrate, and it was a double celebration – reaching the semi-finals and the World Cup.
