Women's Euro 2025 Quarter-Finals, Part Two

 Greetings, gentle readers.

What we find is this:  Having yawned their way to a perfect three win, zero loss performance in the group stage, world champions Spain face off against underdog hosts Switzerland in the first of two quarter-finals.  In the last matchup of the elimination round, eight-time Euro champs Germany lock horns with a French team missing World Cup 2023 standout Wendie Renard. The winners of these two matches will face each other in a semi-final to determine who will reach the final and meet the winner of the game between England and Italy.

Those familiar with these scribblings will know that I have been grumpy about the entire tournament thus far because I was hoping to parley my experience watching and analyzing the Women's World Cup in 2023 into a deeper and possibly predictive understanding of the games in this tournament.  Unfortunately, the amount of players who played in the World Cup and are not making return

Giulia Gwinn

appearances for their national teams is significant.  

The player churn that may be due to injury was highlighted early on with German captain Giulia Gwinn being ruled out of the whole tournament after tearing her medial collateral ligament in her first game.  She also missed the last World Cup through injury.

So what we also find is this:  injuries are running rampant throughout the sport and some sort of reforms are needed, whether that be in terms of the playing surfaces, training practices, warm-up and physio procedures, or just plain pacing of playing time.  With the introduction of the new World Club Cup tournament format in the men's game, professional athletes of both genders are being taxed to exhaustion.  Several players have even declared themselves fit, only to have their managers bench or substitute them regardless.  I'm thinking of Daniëlle van de Donk-Carpenter of Holland, Paulina Dudek of Poland, and Kosovare Asllani of Sweden.  

Field Marshal Bühler

And as a lead-up to the next match summary, I will reiterate my utter desolation at seeing the absence of Luana Bühler, Seraina Piubel, and Ramona Bachmann-Baret in the Swiss lineup.  Their perspicacity, agility, and power (respectively) were part of what made the last Women's World Cup so enjoyable for me. Having both Canada and Germany crash out of that competition early made me find other sources of joy, and I found it in the brave Helvetians.

Spain v. Switzerland

World champions Spain were oddsmakers' favourites for this clash, right off the top, home field advantage be damned.  It was a somewhat muted consensus of the ESPN crew as well that the plucky alpine host nation stood little chance against the polished and precise Spaniards.

Versatile and Valorous Lia Wälti

Switzerland was always going to depend on one of the few veterans of the Women's World Cup of two years ago who survived whatever roster cull manager Pia Sundhage had enacted:  Lia Wälti.  Ostensibly a defensive or holding midfielder, she was asked to be everywhere and support each of her teammates in every scenario.  She fell back into a sweeper role behind the back four when her team looked forward to link up some attacking plays, then shielded the same back four when they lost possession.  She moved to the flanks to create two-on-one overloads wherever necessary, overlapped on attack, and on a couple of occasions, demonstrated a Seven Gerrard-esque willingness to bomb forward fifty yards to pounce upon loose balls that drooled out of the Spanish 19-yard box.

It was largely due to the indomitable Wälti that the game was locked as a nil-nil draw at halftime.  Commentators and pundits marvelled at the Swiss defence, and began to wonder if this game might go scorelessly through the distance.  They need not have bothered.

Awesome Alèxia Putellas

Captain Wälti's valiant exploits across the pitch could only stem the tide of Spanish superiority for so long.  Their AA contingent, Aitana Bonmati, Athenea del Castillo, and Alèxia Putellas, were stringing together silky passing triangles and maintaining consistent offensive possession.

In truth, as the second half wore on, it became apparent that this contest was a foxcub facing a dragoness.  The stubborn and brave Swiss were only courting disaster.  When an inevitable crack in the defence let Athenea del Castillo in for a goal, the home crowd grew silent and Swiss heads dropped.  When captain Wälti stopped playing and began pleading for a foul with referee Maria Caputi, the Spaniards gleefully passed around her and Clàudia Pina gleefully struck a high shot into the opposite top corner, across Swiss keeper Livia Peng's body.

That second goal broke the Swiss.  Wälti immediately made a clumsy tackle, earning her a yellow card.  The Spaniards earned and spurned a penalty either side of those two goals, but Peng's heroics could not affect the final score:  2-0 at Wankdorf Stadion, Bern.

Germany v. France

People thought that the England v. Sweden game was filled with the raw and epic chords of blood and thunder, but no one was prepared for the nightmarish chaos unleashed at St. Jakob Park in Basel.  The German crew seemed a bit threadbare.  In fact, if you read THIS ARTICLE, not a single one of the German players that it lists as being influential started the game.

Griedge Mbock

Everyone will tell you that the most telling moment in this match occurred just fifteen minutes in, when German defender Kathrin Hendrich yanked on the pony-tail of French centre-back Griedge Mbock inside the German 18-yard box.  That led to a straight red card and a penalty shot converted by Grace Geyoro.  France up by a goal and a player, all with 75 minutes left to play in normal time.

Germany marshalled their defence, regained their composure, and a sublime glancing header by Sjoeke Nüsken tied the game after just 25 minutes on the clock.

Sublime Sjoeke Nüsken

 The madness that followed was filled with shock and awe.  The match set the record for the most fouls ever recorded in a single game in this competition. Surprisingly, there were only five yellow cards issued by Swedish ref Tess Olofsson.  The all-action Nüsken even took a penalty which might have won the game in normal time, but the trooper missed.  France also had what appeared to be a sure goal clawed off the line by an acrobatic Ann-Katrin Berger.

The game ground on in a brutal war of attrition.  Finally, in extra time, I saw a few familiar faces.  In fact, in a file folder somewhere in my house, I have an autographed photo of the entire German Women's team at the 2014 U-20 World Cup, featuring a then 19-year old Sara Däbritz.  She scored five goals in that tournament and hoisted the trophy as one of the champions.

Substitute Sara Däbritz

Däbritz, Linda Dallmann, and Lea Schüller were all substituted on during extra time in what looked like a rather cynical tactical move to use damaged and battered veterans in the penalty shootout.  In other words, these players were all carrying at least one knock that compromised their fitness and therefore should not play.  On the other hand, they have the experience, skill, confidence, and expertise to kick a penalty shot.

The cynical substitutions paid off.  Ann-Katrin Berger stopped the first and last French shots, while the only German penalty not to score was sadly taken by none other than Sara Däbritz.  Final score: France 1 - 1 Germany (5:6 pen)

This means that the Germans will have to sort out their multiple injuries and suspensions, clear their heads, and prepare to defend and counter-attack against the slick Spanish.  Although lethal in attack, Spain have shown a vulnerability to attacks on the break and, prior to their match with Switzerland, had conceded the same number of goals as the underdogs.  Their high back line has also left them vulnerable to route one long balls, provided that the opposition striker has the pace to break the offside trap and get some separation from the last defender.

And that concludes the wrap-up of the quarter-finals of the 2025 Women's European Championship.  See you on the other side of the semifinals.  

Until then, goodnight England and the colonies.

Cheers,

—mARKUS