Two-time winners Germany are through to the World Cup semi finals in Canada after beating France 5-4 in a dramatic penalty shootout. The world’s number one ranked side will now face the USA in a mouth-watering clash on Tuesday.
France, ranked 3rd in the world, came into the clash as slight underdogs but controlled large parts of the match and will feel aggrieved to have lost out to the Germans.
Louisa Necib gave the French the lead midway through the second half after her effort deflected past Nadine Angerer in the German goal.
But with 6 minutes left of normal time, the ball appeared to strike the arm of Amel Majri inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot. Celia Sasic calmly converted to take the match to extra time.
In extra time France should have won it, Gaetane Thiney missed a sitter at the far post with the goal gaping.
It’s the first time a match has gone to a penalty shootout in this year’s competition. Germany scored all 5 of their penalties leaving the pressure on the shoulders of 20-year old substitute Claire Lavogez.
Veteran German goalie Angerer, who is set to retire after this tournament, was the heroine, diving to her left and saving the crucial spot kick to send her nation through to the last 4.
A penalty shootout is always a cruel way to go out and France will be particularly disheartened after arguably being the better side on the night.
The French might have gone in front inside the first minute. Powerful winger Elodie Thomis broke free down the right hand side before pulling the ball back to Necib in space inside the area, but the midfielder dragged her shot wide.
In a tightly fought first half either side might have scored. Sasic, for Germany, and Marie Laure Delie of France both watched their headed efforts fly just over the bar.
Necib, France’s main threat, stung the fingers of Angerer just before the break, before Sasic and Dzsenifer Marozsan forced Sarah Bouhaddi into good saves early in the second half.
Germany will now meet the USA on Tuesday night, after they beat China 1-0 in their quarterfinal match in Ottawa. The US are ranked 2nd in the world and German coach Silvia Neid knows her team will need to improve in the semi final.
“It was hard to find our way into the match.” Neid said. “We were poor in all areas of the pitch, and we were made to chase the ball. France were overwhelmingly fast and extremely skilful with the ball.”
French boss Philippe Bergeroo blamed his side’s inability to kill the game off. He said, “we went toe-to-toe with top-class opponents, but in the end we still lost. We only have ourselves to blame for this defeat, which came down to all the chances we wasted throughout the match.”
He added, “We lacked a bit of experience at certain points of the match. When you play against such an effective and powerful team as Germany, you get punished for that kind of thing.”
