BASEL: Gritty Germany reached the Women’s Euro 2025 semifinals on Saturday after prevailing 6-5 in a penalty shootout against France after playing with 10 women for almost all of a gruelling match which finished 1-1 after extra time.
Ann-Katrin Berger was the hero by saving Amel Majri and Alice Sombath’s penalties to secure a last-four clash with Spain to Germany, who will take on the world champions in Zurich on Wednesday.
Germany maintained their record of having never lost to France in a major summer tournament after battling back from going a goal and a woman down in the first 15 minutes to win a bruising encounter in Basel.
“I would have loved to have had the game in 90 minutes and done and dusted,” Berger told reporters.
“I did my part of the game. In 120 minutes they (the team) worked incredibly hard and I think all the credit should go to the team, not me.
“Maybe it was the decisive moment in the penalty shootout but everyone here should talk about it with him (coach Christian Wueck) now about the performance of the team because that was amazing and incredible.”
St. Jakob-Park was dominated by fierce German support which flocked over the nearby border with Switzerland and roared their team on even after Kathrin Hendrich was sent off and gave away the penalty from which Grace Geyoro opened the scoring.
Sjoeke Nuesken — who also missed a penalty in the second half — levelled the scores 10 minutes later and, after a long battle to hold off France, Berger sent the majority of the crowd wild with her shootout stops.
France have now fallen at the quarterfinals stage in eight of their last 10 Euros after losing a match in which they had two goals ruled out for offside.
“I don’t think it was down to character, you have to remember that Germany are third in the FIFA rankings. They sat back and it was hard to break them down — they put in a huge effort against us,” said France coach Laurent Bonadei.
“We couldn’t make the difference, we had two goals ruled out for offside... it’s a lack of being clinical in front of goal.”
Germany came into the match already missing key defenders Giulia Gwinn and Carlotta Wamser, to injury and suspension respectively, while star striker Lea Schueller was also surprisingly left on the bench.
And the Germans’ task was made even harder in the 13th minute when Hendrich was rightly dismissed for inexplicably pulling Griedge Mbock’s hair while defending a free-kick, and giving Geyoro a chance to score she didn’t pass up.
But out of nowhere Nuesken drew a huge roar from Germany fans when she rose, completely unmarked, to glance home Klara Buehl’s inswinging corner.
From there Germany were content to sit back and hold France off by fair means or foul, and they were saved from being behind at the break by Delphone Cascarino needlessly straying offside before she flicked home Kadidiatou Diani’s low cross.
That was one of the few decent attacks France managed to conjure up with an extra woman, and they continued to struggle after the break.
Even when Geyoro had the ball in the net for the second time, lashing home on the rebound after a fine save from Berger, the goal was ruled out as Maelle Lakrar impeded the Germany goalkeeper while in an offside position.
And Pauline Peyraud-Magnin saved France’s skin when she kept out Nuesken’s awful penalty in the 69th minute, given for a soft foul on Jule Brand.
But it was Ann-Katrin Berger who made possibly the save of the tournament 12 minutes into extra time when she somehow clawed out Janina Minge’s inadvertant header and stopped Germany going out to an own goal.
Berger could only watch as Melvine Malard shook the crossbar with almost the last kick of the game before the shootout, but she stepped up in the shootout to allow Germany to win against all odds.
