Women’s Euro 2022: How Germany exploited Austria’s mistakes to reach the semi-finals – tactical analysis

Germany faced Austria in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022’s quarter-finals and the Germans were able to book a ticket for the semi-finals after beating their opponent 2-0. In fact, the result might let us think that the mission was easy for Germany, however, the reality is that Austria threatened Germany on several occasions and were very close to equalising during both the first and the second-half.

This does not take away the credit from Germany who resisted until the end and were able to add a second goal in the final minutes to secure their qualification, knowing that they scored their first goal at the 24^th minute of the match. Both Germany and Austria surprised most followers of the tournament with their consistent and convincing performances during the group stage and continued to do so in this quarter-final match since both teams have never showed any sings of surrender and kept their chances alive until the 89^th minute.

Prior to this match, Austria conceded just one goal in their three group stage games and were able to disturb all of England, Norway and Northern Ireland. The team looked solid and compact in defence and knew how to circulate the ball and keep possession while advancing to reach the final third. And as the players got used to the atmosphere and to the tournament, we started noticing some great attacking actions from Austria and they were able to materialise those actions against Germany as well since they shot ten times in this game and hit the woodwork thrice. At the same time, Germany proved most followers wrong when they succeeded in qualifying at the top of the “group of death”, knowing that they beat all of Spain, Denmark and Finland without conceding a single goal and while scoring nine goals in three games.

In this tactical analysis article, we will be looking at how Germany succeeded in winning this game by focusing mainly on their attacking performance while also exploring Austria’s tactics, the positive aspects of their performance and what they lacked to equalise or beat Germany.

Lineups

Germany were lined-up according to the 4-2-3-1 formation with Merle Frohms as a goalkeeper, Giulia Gwinn, Kathrin Hendrich, Bayern Munich’s Marina Hegering and Felicitas Rauch in defence, Lena Oberdorf and PSG’s Sara Däbritz as central midfielders, Lina Magull as an advanced playmaker, Svenja Huth and Klara Bühl on the wings and Alexandra Popp as a striker.

On the other side, Austria relied on the 4-1-4-1 formation with Arsenal’s goalkeeper, Manuela Zinsberger, one of FAWSL’s promising right-backs, Laura Wienroither, Carina Wenninger, Marina Georgieva and Verena Hanshaw in defence, Sarah Puntigam as a defensive midfielder, Sarah Zadrazil and Laura Feiersinger as central midfielders, Julia Hickelsberger and Barbara Dunst on the wings with Nicole Billa as the team’s sole striker.

Germany’s performance

Germany were the team that had more possession in this match with 60,25% against 39,75% for Austria. The Germans were able to exploit that possession very well in attack by shooting 20 times, although they didn’t threaten Austria’s goal a lot because only five shots out of 20 were on target. The team relied mainly on their quick and physically strong wingers to advance through the wings and serve Popp or one of the midfielders and mainly Magull or Däbritz, who often advanced to create numerical superiority inside the box and attempt at finishing actions.

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