Exhausted Wück: "We now need three days of ice cream and recovery"
"Fought into the semifinals" – that could be a headline after the German women's victory against France. Accordingly, national coach Christian Wück announced a long recovery period before deciding who will be able to play against Spain.
Screaming his joy: Christian Wück. IMAGO/MIS
The German national team will never forget what happened on Saturday evening in Basel. "I've never played a game like that before, wow," admitted Sjoeke Nüsken after the 6-5 penalty shootout defeat against France.
The fact that such a memorable evening even came about was due to one of the most experienced players in the German national team. Kathrin Hendrich , starting for the first time at this European Championship, unnecessarily pulled Griedge Mbock's hair off the ball during a free kick. The result: a red card and a penalty, which led to the French opening after a quarter of an hour. When asked about Hendrich's action on ZDF , Christian Wück , who had also been shown a yellow card shortly afterward for complaining, declined to comment.
However, he did offer some insight into the game plan for the extended period of being outnumbered. First, his team was supposed to prevent another goal, "because we knew that if we got a set piece, we had the quality to score."
He was actually right – perhaps also due to previous criticism. After Wück had criticized the offensive set pieces beforehand, Nüsken struck immediately after the first corner of the game: She set off in front of the near post and then nodded the ball into the far corner. "That was exactly what we agreed on. That was exactly the variation we wanted to do," said Wück.
Even more than the successful variation, he was probably pleased with the self-sacrificing performance of his players: Germany defended passionately and supported each other throughout the entire 120 minutes – even Nüsken's missed penalty didn't cause a setback. "We wouldn't have been able to do it if just one of them had broken. Thank God they didn't, and that's why I'm so proud of this team," explained the national coach, who himself was "completely exhausted."
The DFB women's team will certainly feel the impact of their efforts in the coming days. The clash with top favorites Spain is already on Wednesday (9 p.m.). "I think we need three days of ice and recovery, and then we'll see if we can field eleven players against Spain," explained Wück. Despite the limited recovery time, the 52-year-old remained confident. He drew this from the extraordinary evening: "This gives us another huge mental boost."
