{"id":627900,"date":"2025-12-12T07:52:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/627900\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T07:52:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T07:52:24","slug":"a-look-back-germanys-3-0-loss-to-spain-in-the-womens-nations-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/627900\/","title":{"rendered":"A look back: Germany\u2019s 3-0 loss to Spain in the Women\u2019s Nations League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany suffered a 3-0 defeat to Spain in the second leg of the Women\u2019s Nations League Final on December 2nd, making for a bitter end to a 2025 that had enjoyed many highs and leaving open questions about the future. Highlights<\/a> available online, courtesy of the DFB.<\/p>\n

The Germans carried a 0-0 aggregate scoreline<\/a> in from the first leg, having \u2014 somewhat improbably on both counts \u2014 controlled possession and created the lion\u2019s share of serious scoring chances. The nil-nil felt ominous and sure enough Spain struck thrice in under 15 second-half minutes, through Cl\u00e0udia Pina (twice) and Vicky L\u00f3pez, to cement the result.<\/p>\n

Nicole Anyomi, as she had in the game before, had a chance to punch the Germans aside. On the stroke of half-time, Elisa Sen\u00df found midfield partner Sjoeke N\u00fcsken right at the top of the penalty arc, and N\u00fcsken managed to slip it in for Anyomi inside the box. The Eintracht Frankfurt forward drove it low and across goal from a tight but reasonable angle, and her shot glanced wide by the slimmest of margins.<\/p>\n

But quite unlike the first leg, Spain was not kept at bay really at any point. The Spanish started and finished strong, accumulating 14 total shots and forcing a number of key interventions from Germany keeper Ann-Katrin Berger. Spain had most of the possession and nearly all the initiative, overrunning Germany in midfield and especially down the left flank, commanded there by brace-scorer and player of the match Pina.<\/p>\n

Where is this Germany team, two years and change out now from the 2028 Women\u2019s World Cup? The question remains hard to answer. The Christian W\u00fcck era began with glimmers of optimism, and that is where they remain for now \u2014 glimmers. When his side plays with intensity and focus, they can hang with the best. But tactically, technically, individually, it does not yet look like like world-beaters or a team just on the verge of putting together a run of dominance, as Spain, England, or the USWNT.<\/p>\n

Against Spain, squandered chances returned home to roost in both legs, and an opponent full of magic-makers \u2014 even in the absence of injured Ballon d\u2019Or-ina Aitana Bonmat\u00ed in the second leg \u2014 made the first match look more mirage than resistance. When the dam broke, Spain surged in, goal after goal after goal, and all German hopes through some 150 minutes of play were extinguished as if it had been silly to ever entertain them.<\/p>\n

With the Nations League campaign over, and EURO 2025 comfortably in the rear view as well, it is time for the DFB to assess where things stand. For the talent Germany has now, and has coming up the pipeline, are they building towards something special in the current project? If not, is there a worthy alternative?<\/p>\n

If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, Apple<\/a>, or any leading podcast distributor\u2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany suffered a 3-0 defeat to Spain in the second leg of the Women\u2019s Nations League Final on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[9198,70201,9199,2000,299,129072,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-627900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-bayern-munich-frauen","9":"tag-bayern-munich-match-awards","10":"tag-bayern-munich-match-observations","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-german-national-team-and-international-soccer","14":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115705514822347108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627900","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=627900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}