The German footballers associate Sweden with a memory that Martina Voss-Tecklenburg “prefers to suppress”.
At her first World Cup as national coach, the DFB selection failed at the 2019 World Cup in France in the quarter-finals against the Scandinavians. In the evening (6.15 p.m. / ZDF) the two world-class teams will now meet in Duisburg in a test international match. “I’m still hoping that over 26,000 will come again tomorrow,” said Voss-Tecklenburg at the final press conference on Monday evening.
That’s how many there were in the 2-1 win against France in Dresden in October, the first home game after the euphoric European Championship in England. The DFB had sold 18,500 tickets by Monday afternoon and is hoping for over 20,000 fans. The most prominent spectator in the stadium will be Chancellor Olaf Scholz. It was said that the Chancellor wanted to express his special appreciation for women’s football in Germany. The SPD politician had already campaigned last year for national players to receive the same bonuses from the DFB.
125th international match for Popp
DFB captain Alexandra Popp from VfL Wolfsburg is due to play her 125th international match in Duisburg. The 31-year-old was also on the pitch in the 2-1 draw against Sweden in 2019, when not only did the dream of a third World Cup title after 2003 and 2007 burst, but Tokyo’s participation in the Olympics was also lost. For the German team, the encounter is the first endurance test this year before the World Cup from July 20th to August 20th in Australia and New Zealand. There, Germany meets Morocco, Colombia and South Korea in Group H.
Of course, German women’s football also has many good memories of Sweden. Almost 20 years ago, Nia Künzer from Frankfurt scored the golden goal in the World Cup final in the USA against Sweden. In the 1995 European Championship final in Kaiserslautern, there was a 3-2 win over their long-term rivals, and Voss-Tecklenburg also played at the time. In 2001 at the final of the European Championship in Ulm, after a goal by Claudia Müller, it was Germany – Sweden 1-0. And when the German players won their first Olympic gold – in 2016 still under coach Silvia Neid – there was a 2-1 win against Sweden in the final in Rio de Janeiro.
