Germany drew 0-0 to Spain in the home leg of this year’s UEFA Women’s Nations League Final but looked by far the likelier side to find a winner.
A full 15 shots to Spain’s three was not enough to make a dent on the scoreboard, which stood pristine as the final whistle blew. Now it is all level and all to play for heading into Tuesday’s rematch.
Germany set the tone early. While Spain maintained the balance of possession, Germany was great at cutting off avenues for attack. Sjoeke Nüsken got in the way of one early attempt to move the ball vertically and turned her interception into an instant chance by sending Nicole Anyomi driving into the box. The Eintracht Frankfurt forward had Klara Bühl square and Jule Brand racing towards the far post but could not find either, instead sending a shot blazing across the goal and wide.
Nüsken did it again near the half-hour mark, stonewalling a long-range pass from the Spanish backline and within seconds the Germans were at it again. Bühl was sent racing into the box, finding Brand on a pullback, but the Lyon winger’s shot was cleared awkwardly off the line and Nüsken, arriving late, snatched at the rebound but couldn’t make the connection.
Brand ended the game having herself made two enormous chances to turn the tide. In stoppage time, she spotted Nüsken making a clever run and threaded her through on goal, only for Spanish keeper Cata Coll to arrive first by a hair. Earlier in the first half, she turned away from her markers, drove upfield and launched a defense-splitting through ball that curled teasingly away from a charging Klara Bühl, who was well through on goal, and arriving nearly as lethally at the feet of teammate Franziska Kett. The left-back was wider, however, and shot from an angle where a goal would have required something somewhat more dazzling than she came up with.
So it went. A strike straight at the keeper with a teammate in better position. An incisive pass inches away from finding its mark and producing a scoring chance. Shekiera Martinez had one or two serious chances for a debut goal but the magic was just not on offer for her or her teammates. Germany found every way to somehow not score, producing a 0-0 result that was less a tenacious defense against Spanish firepower than an improbable dominance marred by what feels, gloomily, like costly profligacy.
But the dominance itself should produce hope that the Germans can take with them to Madrid. This is a team full of Ballon d’Or winners who as recently as the semifinals were blowing teams away, seemingly at will. Germany showed, as they did at the EUROs last summer, that they are much too good to be dispensed with like that. Against Germany, it can be Spain that holds on for dear life.
Now the question: Can they repeat the trick on Tuesday — and bury at least one good chance?
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