DFB women after an EM coup against France: “The girls were just blatant”

When penalty hero Ann-Katrin Berger wanted to disappear towards the cabin after the exuberant jubilee in Basel St. Jakob-Park, Selina Cerci came towards her with a huge speaker. The party of the German footballers continued on the lawn, although the audience had already migrated.

“I am incredibly proud of the team. I just contributed to it, I always say that. But the team did the whole work,” said goalkeeper Berger after a memorable EM quarter-finals against France.

“I think we now need three days of ice sun and relaxation and then we see whether we can still set up eleven players against Spain,” said a completely agitated and creation national coach Christian Wück, whose team now demands the world champions in Zurich on Wednesday.

“It was also a great performance from her and we knew that she gave us stability,” said Wück about Berger. Last year, she had secured Olympic bronze with a penalty held in added time against Spain. This time, too, the 34-year-old from FC Gotham shone: kept two shots in a penalty shootout, turned yourself-and before that with many a big act kept their team in the game.

In the end it was 6: 5 in a penalty shootout for the eightfold European champion, 1: 1 (1: 1, 1: 1) it was after 120 minutes – the title dream continues. And in the end everyone fell over Berger, who knelt with spread arms on the goal line and smiled broadly. “Elferrkiller!” Said Elisa Sense and shook her head stunned.

“We have been waiting for the moment all the time. Anne is outstanding. We can rely on her, even more at the penalty shootout. Mega, really,” said captain Janina Minge.

Klara Bühl took a long way in her hymn of praise. “Crass, incredible, world-class. Today it has shown how incredible it is. What a personality,” said the Bavaria striker and explained that Berger was “just a very love” apart from the square. “You can always talk to her about anything. Of course, she has an incredible amount of life experience with what she went through.”

Bühl appealed to what Berger shaped in the past few years when she has not yet been a DFB stem keeper: the Schwäbin had two thyroid cancer twice, fought back into competitive sports every time-and is stronger than ever.

“I think she brought her life path to cope with such a calm critical situations. And this calm and security that she exudes is extremely important for the team structure,” said Wück.

Resistors grow – and also grow beyond themselves: the national team showed this after a series of setbacks against the favorite and ultimately completely demoralized French women.

After 13 minutes, Kathrin Hendrich pulls in the penalty area at the braid of Griedge Mbock. Red, penalty, 0: 1. After 20 minutes, Sarai Linder has to be injured, another failure in the already decimated defense. After the header compensation from Sjoeke Nüsken (25th), the midfielder shoots a penalty (69.). But the Wück team continues to go on. “I have never seen running like this,” said Bühl in astonishment.

“This is an incredible increase in performance – and that is too tenth in the field,” said Nüsken. After the 1: 4 against Sweden, the German players had been criticized hard. This time the energy level was right.

“We now want to bring the thing home. We showed what we have on it,” said Nüsken, referring to the further course of the tournament. After the final whistle and the first big cheer, the 24-year-old from Chelsea was the first to run to the German fans with wild jumps in joy. In the ZDF interview, the tears later came to her when she said: “We are such an incredibly cool team and I think we can do it.”

Berger also dares and their teammates to the big coup. “Now everyone has to be afraid of us,” she said. Wück was “incredible” and “scary” proud. At his tournament premiere with the women, the 52-year-old, who led the German U17 of the men to the European Championship and World Cup title in 2023, at least let all skeptics fall silent.

On the lawn, next to the box, Cerci, the injured captain Giulia Gwinn and Sophia Kleinhernen danced to Wolfgang-Petry hits and hopped, as the Dutch fans made a cult, “naar left! Naar right!”

Berger already gave the next interviews and still revealed that at the penalty shootout she did not look at the cheat sheet with information about the French penalty shooters who stuck on their drinking bottle.

“I actually do it intuitively and actually look at the player,” she said. “I was a bit dissatisfied with myself, I have to say because I jumped too early from time to time. But in the end it worked.”

By the way, the match winner devoted the first sentence to the camera to her oldest fan and family member: “This is for you, grandpa!” She roared there. The 92-year-old gentleman was already in the stadium in the preliminary round victory against Denmark. But he only wants to come to the stadium again, so Berger said these days when the German selection reaches the final. This will also take place in Basel next Sunday.