Sport victory against Netherlands
German soccer players qualify for the Olympics
Status: 29.02.2024 | Reading time: 3 minutes
DFB women qualify for the Olympic Games
Big relief for the German soccer women: They are taking part in the Olympics in Paris. The team of interim national coach Horst Hrubesch won the game for third place in the Nations League against the Netherlands 2-0. This also makes the Olympic dream come true.
“Paris, Paris, we’re going to Paris”: The DFB women have qualified for the Olympic Games. National coach Horst Hrubesch’s team secured their ticket with a 2-0 win in the Nations League game for third place against the Netherlands on Wednesday evening.
Thanks to Klara Bühl and Lea Schüller, the German footballers and interim national coach Horst Hrubesch have made their Olympic dream come true. The DFB women are allowed to go to Paris in the summer after the hard-fought 2-0 (0-0) against the Netherlands.
In the game for third place in the Nations League on Wednesday evening in Heerenveen, Munich’s Bühl (66th minute) scored the goals for the vice-European champions thanks to preparatory work from the outstanding Lena Oberdorf and Schüller (78th). In front of over 20,000 spectators in the Abe Lenstra Stadium, captain Alexandra Popp and Co. cheered exuberantly after the final whistle.
The Hrubesch team showed great improvement five days after the 1-2 defeat in France, the first missed Olympic opportunity, but had to tremble for a long time. Six months after the World Cup debacle in Australia, the DFB women ultimately prevented the next bitter setback.
The German selection missed out on taking part in Tokyo in 2021. Now the players can hope for their second German Olympic gold after Rio de Janeiro 2016. World champions Spain, France, the USA, Canada, Brazil and Colombia will be taking part in the summer games. The group draw is on March 20th.
Hrubesch leads footballers to Paris at the age of 73
Thanks to the success against the Oranje team of coach Andries Jonker, the DFB has gained time in the search for a successor to Hrubesch: The HSV idol will look after the footballers at the summer games – then at the age of 73 – as planned and will not be in his second term in office end early. From April onwards he has to get Popp and Co. through the European Championship qualification for Switzerland in 2025. The German U21 men, silver medalists eight years ago under head coach Hrubesch, did not make it to the games in Paris.
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Hrubesch had drawn the conclusions from Lyon’s weak first half and forewent a Popp/Schüller dual leadership. Her Munich club colleague Sydney Lohmann played for Schüller as a playmaker. This time, the DFB players approached the game with a lot of power and strength in duels and initially hardly gave the Dutch women any breathing space.
Klara Bühl in a duel with Caitlin Dijkstra
Those: dpa/Federico Gambarini
Sjoeke Nüsken hit the left post after 25 minutes after energetically winning the ball. Defense chief Marina Hegering and Oberdorf, who repeatedly disrupted the build-up of the game for the 2019 World Cup runners-up, provided the necessary security.
Nevertheless, Popp’s offensive department couldn’t find a way through the front row – the passes were too erratic. Giulia Gwinn also got stuck on a promising counterattack – and Jule Brand kept getting stuck on the right.
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On the other hand, former Munich striker Lineth Beerensteyn was whirling in her 100th international match, but rarely managed to finish. After the break, Hrubesch brought Schüller on, but things remained difficult going forward. Popp, who had exciting duels with her Wolfsburg club colleague Dominique Janssen, was injured after a collision with her.
Oberdorf then initiated the decisive attack and provided Bühl with an energetic header. The Munich woman shot in from six meters. Schüller missed twice in the final phase before she managed to make it 2-0, and the fans who had traveled with her sang: “Paris, Paris, we’re going to Paris.”
