{"id":524766,"date":"2025-10-24T12:59:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/524766\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:59:11","slug":"germany-vs-france-preview-womens-nations-league-semi-final-1st-leg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/524766\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany vs France Preview: Women’s Nations League semi-final, 1st leg"},"content":{"rendered":"

The semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Nations League<\/a><\/strong> kick off as Germany host France at the Merkur Spiel-Arena.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The visitors will be looking to avenge their defeat on penalties to Germany in the quarter-finals of the 2025 Women’s Euros just a few months ago.<\/p>\n

With the first leg being played in Germany, the French will be hoping to set themselves up nicely for the second leg in their homeland.<\/p>\n

The two met at this stage in the 23\/24 edition of the competition, where France emerged victorious on that occasion courtesy of goals from Kadidiatou Diani<\/a><\/strong> and Sakina Karchaoui.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Historically, Germany have enjoyed more success in this fixture, but having developed into a formidable looking team in recent years who arguably should have gone further in the Euros, France will certainly fancy their chances.<\/p>\n

Germany:<\/p>\n

Head coach of Germany, Christian Wueck, has certainly not shied away from the fact that he does not have as strong a squad as he was hoping for at his disposal.<\/p>\n

Lena Oberdorf<\/a><\/strong> was unable to make a return to international duty after suffering an ACL injury. Ann-Katrin Berger,<\/a><\/strong> Rebecca Knaak, Sophia Kleinherne, and Giovanna Hoffmann are also out of action with injuries.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old admitted that the two-legged fixture would be a tough one, with multiple players not as ready as he had hoped ahead of this Euros quarter-final rematch.<\/p>\n

This news does provide some of the less regular starters to stake a claim for more regular minutes for their nation, a positive that Wueck highlighted whilst speaking to the media.<\/p>\n

This has been proved with three previously uncapped players being called up to duty, including Laura Dick, Camilla K\u00fcver and Shekiera Martinez.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

France:<\/p>\n

Wassa Sangar\u00e9 and Kysha Sylla have been called up by France for the first time. The duo played a big part in the success of the French youth ranks and will now be looking to impact the senior team.<\/p>\n

Laurina Fazer and In\u00e8s Benyahia also return to international duty after being sidelined for a considerable amount of time. Following the international retirements of Sandie Toletti and Amel Majri,<\/a><\/strong> Laurent Bonadei<\/a><\/strong> will also have the task of filling that void.<\/p>\n

It is a very young French squad with 8 of the 26 players being under the age of 23.<\/p>\n

Germany:<\/p>\n

Johannes; Kett, K\u00fcver, Minge, Gwinn; N\u00fcsken, Sen\u00df; B\u00fchl, Anyomi, Brand; Sch\u00fcller<\/p>\n

France:<\/p>\n

Peyraud-Magnin; Almeida, Mbock , Lakrar, Bacha; Geyoro, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois, Karchaoui; Cascarino, Katoto, Diani<\/p>\n

Germany – Sjoeke N\u00fcsken<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The French midfield is one of the most complete in the women’s game, therefore meaning that Germany require a strong presence in midfield themselves if they want to counteract this.<\/p>\n

Sjoeke N\u00fcsken<\/a><\/strong> will be key in helping her nation do just this. She is a familiar face for Bonadei’s side, finding the back of the net against them in the Euros a few months back.<\/p>\n

The midfielder will also have a personal point to prove. She will be hoping to produce a high-quality performance to convince Sonia Bompastor<\/a><\/strong> to give her more minutes in the WSL; the Chelsea head coach will likely be watching.<\/p>\n

Marie-Antoinette Katoto:<\/p>\n

Marie-Antoinette Katoto<\/a><\/strong> has always been lethal in the French frontline, and will certainly be hungry for revenge against a side that she was not able to make an impact against in the Euros.<\/p>\n

With 40 goals in her 59 appearances for her nation, her goalscoring pedigree is there for everyone to see. Against a German defence that has been hit by injury, you would not bet against Katoto.<\/p>\n

The striker has also had a decent start to life at OL Lyonnes, having moved from Paris-Saint Germain in the summer. Three goal involvements in three Premi\u00e8re Ligue starts make for good reading for France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The semi-finals of the UEFA Women’s Nations League kick off as Germany host France at the Merkur Spiel-Arena.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,36,85979,1824,170402,170404,170407,88292,170406,170405,97203,92772,170403,84559],"class_list":{"0":"post-524766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-france-womens-national-team","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-germany-womens-national-team","14":"tag-kadidiatou-diani","15":"tag-laurent-bonadei","16":"tag-lena-oberdorf","17":"tag-marie-antoinette-katoto","18":"tag-sakina-karchaoui","19":"tag-sjoeke-nusken","20":"tag-uefa-womens-nations-league","21":"tag-womens-nations-league","22":"tag-womens-euros"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115429268913704910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524766","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=524766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}