Unfortunately, the Women’s European Championship is down to the final game, which will be played this Sunday at the grand stage of Wembley Stadium.
The hosts England ran rampant on Tuesday night, demolishing Peter Gerhardsson’s Sweden with a 4-0 victory at Bramall Lane to seal their place in the final, waiting patiently to find out their opponents on Wednesday as Germany and France locked horns.
The second semi-final was a lot more close-knit, with the two European titans leaving it all on the pitch. However, as cruel as football is, only one team could go through to face the Lionesses this weekend.
France have been a bit of a surprise package in the tournament thus far. Les Bleues are a team filled with quality with an exceptional tactician on the sidelines, but rumours of unrest in the dressing room led many to believe that a collapse was inevitable.
Nevertheless, head coach Corinne Diacre held it together and managed to lead her side all the way to the semi-finals, narrowly losing out to Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s Germany who have been a resilient defensive wall filled with powerful and potent prowess going forward.
The game was fascinating to watch from a neutral perspective but breaking down the tactics used by the two teams was even more intriguing. This article will be a tactical analysis of the semi-final clash. Through our analysis, we will dive into how Voss-Tecklenburg overcame Diacre strategically to lead her army to victory.
Lineups and formations
In anticipation of the lineups, many fans were wondering whether or not the two head coaches would make any changes from the sides that made it through from the quarter-finals.
Across both teams, there was merely one change, as Voss-Tecklenburg brought 19-year-old Bundesliga star Jule Brand into the starting eleven, deploying her off the left wing in place of Klara Bühl who missed a glaring opportunity towards the end of the previous game to seal their place in the semis. Of course, Die Nationalelf did manage to snag the victory in the end, but the manager may have been less forgiving.
