On Friday, Germany defeated Poland 2-0 to open their account at the Women\u2019s European Championships. It was an important three points with upcoming group stage matches against Denmark (Tuesday) and Sweden (Saturday).<\/p>\n
Poland came to play<\/p>\n
Germany came into this game as handy favorites, but the Polish side brought the fight \u2014 both with resolute, mostly disciplined defending and enough of a threat on the counter to keep the Germans honest. Honestly, Germany showed a fair bit of vulnerability in advancing high up the field, particularly with their full-backs. An errant pass out the back here, a step too slow in the center of the pitch there \u2014 Poland exposed a fair amount for Germany to tidy up.<\/p>\n
Giulia Gwinn injury blow<\/p>\n
Speaking of full-backs…Germany\u2019s captain and starting right-back Giulia Gwinn suffered what was later confirmed<\/a> to be an MCL sprain in her left knee and her EUROs journey is already over. The Bayern Munich<\/a> star\u2019s leadership and on-field ability will be extraordinarily missed, and also she was the closest thing to a right-back on the entire roster. She was replaced by new Bayer Leverkusen signing Carlotta Wamser, who filled in admirably but has been regarded as more of a winger in her young career. The position \u2014 and the backline \u2014 will be an area to monitor going forward.<\/p>\n Germany\u2019s attacking firepower sparkles<\/p>\n When Germany had control but still needed a goal to push for a result, individual quality came to the fore. Newly minted Lyon winger Jule Brand walloped a sumptuous strike from range. It was a moment of real magic at a time when Poland\u2019s stubborn defensive setup was doing its job, as described excellently in this tactical analysis<\/a> from women\u2019s football writer Maryam Clark<\/a>.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t just Brand. Bayern superstar Klara B\u00fchl didn\u2019t get on the scoresheet but was at her best marauding down and supplying danger from the opposite wing. Lea Sch\u00fcller had a tough time influencing the game but her goal should give her confidence to grow into the tournament. Sometimes it doesn\u2019t matter how soundly you set up, you need a bit of razzle-dazzle in your attack. Germany has that.<\/p>\n Christian W\u00fcck era looking bright<\/p>\n Germany finished as runner-ups in the last EUROs only three years ago, so it hasn\u2019t quite been a period of wandering in the wilderness. Still, W\u00fcck has brought undeniable rejuvenation to the squad in his short time in charge and has started off his first tournament in the right way. He has handled the transition from mainstays like Alexandra Popp, Lina Magull, and Marina Hegering with aplomb and has a collection of intriguing attacking talents yet to be fully unleashed, but who may yet write themselves into the history books over the course of the tournament. It\u2019s a promising time to be a Germany fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Friday, Germany defeated Poland 2-0 to open their account at the Women\u2019s European Championships. It was an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[9200,6098,9198,9199,2000,47304,299,94,31807,21003,163,1824,6100,94538,67211,49079,770,2955,6101,21741,9356,9201,6099],"class_list":{"0":"post-243307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-all-womens-sports","9":"tag-bavarian","10":"tag-bayern-munich-frauen","11":"tag-bayern-munich-match-observations","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-euro","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-four","17":"tag-from","18":"tag-front-page","19":"tag-germany","20":"tag-germany-international-soccer","21":"tag-inaugural","22":"tag-observations","23":"tag-over","24":"tag-poland","25":"tag-s","26":"tag-soccer-sg","27":"tag-uefa-european-championship","28":"tag-win","29":"tag-womens-soccer","30":"tag-works"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114807716280127041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}