{"id":276138,"date":"2025-07-20T01:10:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T01:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/276138\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T01:10:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T01:10:25","slug":"breaking-down-ann-katrin-berger-save-of-the-euros-sending-germany-to-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/276138\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking down Ann-Katrin Berger save of the Euros, sending Germany to semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ann-Katrin Berger is backpedaling and already going down. Gravity is working against the 34-year-old German goalkeeper. So are basic physics, the general understanding of human limitations, logic. But there is her left arm, extended into another dimension, clawing out a rogue header from German defender Janina Minge millimetres from her goal line in the 105th minute of Germany\u2019s quarter-final victory over France like some exquisitely German-engineered time machine.<\/p>\n

Half an hour later, the former Chelsea shot-stopper is dropping to her knees, those same dimension-entering arms outstretched, Christ the Redeemer-style, embracing her stampeding teammates after saving two penalties and converting another.<\/p>\n

Germany \u2014 down a player from the 13th minute of this maelstrom of a quarter-final, after Kathrin Henrich\u2019s inane red card for pulling Griedge Mbock\u2019s hair in the penalty area \u2014 are through to the semi-finals after beating France 6-5 on penalties.<\/p>\n

That is largely because of Berger.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ann-Katrin Berger and Germany celebrate advancing to the semi-finals. (Molly Darlington\/UEFA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Gotham FC goalkeeper doesn\u2019t so much live for these moments as the moments live for her. In March 2023, Berger denied U.S. women\u2019s national team midfielder Lindsey Heaps in Chelsea\u2019s Champions League quarter-final penalty shootout against Lyon to advance to the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

In last summer\u2019s Olympic Games, Berger saved two shots from Ashley Lawrence\u00a0and\u00a0Adriana Leon in the quarter-final penalty shootout against\u00a0Canada, before scoring the decisive penalty. She later deflected Alexia Putellas\u2019 ninth-minute penalty in Germany\u2019s bronze medal match against Spain, defeating the world champions 1-0.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night, Berger was the perfect analog for a dogged, resilient German performance. She was confident in the air, composed on the ball, quick off her line, racing out to smother any French threat within 25 feet of her area. She plastered her Gatorade bottles with opposition players\u2019 preferred penalty angles, wrapped around the plastic exterior like some sort of secret marine expedition. She duly denied France\u2019s Amel Majri and Alice Sombath.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ann-Katrin Berger had printouts of France\u2019s penalty kick stats. (Fabrice Coffrini\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Berger was defiant in the face of everything: of a red card to one of her team-mates and of the 18 shots France thrashed at her goal. France registered nine shots on target before the penalty shootout. Berger made nine saves. Five were in the box. Another five were what the BBC qualifies as \u201cdiving saves\u201d, an absurdly under-qualified description for the goalkeeping Berger produced in the 105th minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the most impressive element of it was the fact that she had to reorganise her body,\u201d Karen Bardsley, former England and Manchester City No 1, tells The Athletic.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\"\"\/\u201cShe had to readjust her balance to go from right to left really quickly to generate the power to push off her left foot and dive in a really powerful way.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/\"\"\/
\u201cTo produce that sort of power is impressive in that quick instant,\u201d Bardsley continued. \u201cShe was really low, generated a lot of it from probably her glutes and her quads, but the full extension was massive. Then to claw it out of the way at full extension while you\u2019re falling onto your shoulder? That is all out AKB, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ann-Katrin Berger\u2019s save kept Germany in the game. (Fabrice Coffrini\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Berger is not always the subject of praise when it comes to her gonzo-style goalkeeping. Her tendency to rush out of her area, to foray to the halfway line and dribble against onrushing strikers has earned her skeptics, including Germany coach Christian Wuck, who, after the opening Euro 2025 match against Poland (which Germany won 2-0), spoke about his goalkeeper\u2019s risk-taking in juxtaposition to her match-winning reflexes. Some German reporters and pundits asked whether such a style might be more sabotage than bravery.<\/p>\n

When asked about these doubts in a pre-match press conference this week, Berger did not mince her words. \u201cWhy should criticism from people who have never even stood in a goal affect me?\u201d<\/p>\n

For all her obvious abilities between the sticks, there is also the conviction to step up and take a penalty herself. (England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton said after the Lionesses\u2019 dramatic penalty shoot-out victory against Sweden that she could not fathom doing so due to the mental expenditure required just to make saves.)<\/p>\n

Such an unflappable creed is not synthesised with time or practice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ann-Katrin Berger scored the Germany\u2019s sixth penalty in the penalty shoot out with France. (Alex Caparros\/UEFA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not really an emotional person,\u201d Berger said in her post-match press conference Saturday, having been named UEFA\u2019s Player of the Match. \u201cI wasn\u2019t happy that we had to go to a penalty shootout because I would\u2019ve liked to have it done in 90 minutes. But I did my part in the game because the team in the 120 minutes worked incredibly hard. All the credit should go to the team and not me. Maybe it\u2019s the decisive moment, but everyone here should talk about the performance of the team because that was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange is quintessential Berger. In the minutes before kick-off, Berger walked calmly to her goal in front of the German fans. She raised her arms, gearing them up, her face as expressionless as granite. As she walked to take her place in front of the France fans for the shoot-out, she wore the same expression.<\/p>\n

But that Berger has this moment is special for myriad reasons. Perhaps none more than because during the previous Euros in England, Berger (then Germany\u2019s No 2) discovered that her thyroid cancer,<\/a> first diagnosed in 2017 when she was playing for Birmingham City, had returned. She underwent therapy again. From there, Berger began curating her legend: Berger as a goalkeeping transcendence beyond 2022. A year later, there was Lyon. A year after that, Canada. Three months later, she was voted the National Women\u2019s Soccer League\u2019s Goalkeeper of the Year with Gotham FC.<\/p>\n

And now, there is Basel, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I look forward,\u201d she said. \u201cI live my best life, and I\u2019m in a semi-final.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Jose Breton \/ NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ann-Katrin Berger is backpedaling and already going down. Gravity is working against the 34-year-old German goalkeeper. So are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[885,2000,299,1824,104248,34103,10031,84559,9201],"class_list":{"0":"post-276138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-chelsea","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-gotham-fc","13":"tag-nwsl","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-womens-euros","16":"tag-womens-soccer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114882899431783487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276138","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=276138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}