The goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger produced one of the all-time great European Championship saves as a courageous performance from 10-player Germany stunned France to progress to the Euro 2025 semi-finals on a night of compelling drama in Basel.
In an absorbing affair packed with unpredictable moments, including a shocking, early red card offence, video assistant referee drama, two penalties and two disallowed France goals, ultimately it was the more familiar conclusion of Germany’s mental strength excelling in a penalty shootout that led to the elimination of a France side who had struck the crossbar in the 120th minute.
The record eight-time European champions had to play the vast majority of the contest with one player fewer than the French but defended doggedly throughout extra time and then won the shootout 6-5 to book a semi-final meeting with the world champions, Spain, on Wednesday in Zurich.
Germany’s fate had looked bleak in the 13th minute when Kathrin Hendrich was shown a straight red card for pulling Griedge Mbock’s hair inside the penalty area. It was a blatant, cynical foul and frankly bizarre behaviour from the 33-year-old Hendrich, one of the most experienced players on the pitch. Grace Geyoro duly stepped up and did what just under half the takers have been able to do in this tournament and converted her penalty. Berger got a hand to Geyoro’s spot-kick but could not keep it out and the midfielder became France’s all-time top scorer at Women’s European Championships.
For the remainder of the first half, Germany defied their numerical disadvantage with a brave performance of counterattacking football and they equalised when Sjoeke Nüsken darted to the near post unmarked to meet Klara Bühl’s corner and loop an excellent header into the far corner. The game ended 1-1 after extra time and the Germany coach, Christian Wück, was immensely proud of his side’s resilience with 10 players, saying: “I can say for certain that tonight was the best and hardest-fought performance I’ve seen from the team since I’ve known them – against an opponent who demanded everything from us. That was incredible.”
France thought they had scored an outstanding team goal before half-time, when Delphine Cascarino’s instinctive back-heel into the net rounded off a flowing move, but she had been in an offside position. Another offside decision, confirmed by the VAR, also ruled out a French “goal” early in the second half, when Geyoro tucked in on the rebound from Berger’s close-range save from Marie-Antoinette Katoto; Maëlle Lakrar was offside and deemed to have interfered with play, much to the frustration of France and Geyoro, who had run to celebrate with her teammates next to the substitutes’ bench.
Germany were doing an excellent job of stifling their opponents with a valiant defensive display and then – suddenly – at the other end, they were awarded a penalty when Selma Bacha clumsily fouled the superb Jule Brand. Cue German joy in the stands, but it was short-lived as Pauline Peyraud-Magnin saved Nüsken’s penalty, which had been fired slightly to the left of centre, and a relatively kind height for the keeper.
Berger produced the save of the tournament so far in the first 15 extra minutes, wowing everybody in the stadium as she somehow leaped backwards to make a one-handed save to prevent an own goal from her teammate Janina Minge, with the keeper magnificently managing to claw the ball off the line when it had been behind her body. She was superb again in the shootout, making two saves – including the decisive one from Alice Sombath’s sudden-death strike – to complete a stunning result. On the way she also scored a spot-kick of her own. Modestly, she said afterwards: “All the credit should go to the team, not me. Everybody here should talk about the performance of the team.”
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That may be the case but Berger’s one-handed save to prevent Minge’s embarrassment will go down in Euros history as a save for the ages, and the result ensured that France’s long wait for a first major trophy in the women’s game will continue, as they exit at the quarter-final stage of this competition for the fourth time in the past five editions of the Women’s Euros. The France head coach, Laurent Bonadei, denied that his team had a psychological problem, saying: “My team has progressed very much and gave us a lot of hope. Rome was not built in one day. We will continue to work really hard so that one day this team will get a trophy.
“Germany deserves their qualification because they defended very well. Usually we manage to create more chances. We were against a team that was very smart. There was no panic from them – we wanted to get them to panic but it didn’t happen.”
