Germany all but secured their progression to the knockout stages of the UEFA Women’s European Championship, coming from behind to beat Denmark 2-1 in Basel, with the result also ensuring the Danes’ exit from the competition.
Germany entered the encounter in the better position, winning their opening game against Poland 2-0 while the Danes were beaten by Sweden in their own curtain-raiser.
A win for the DFB-Frauenelf would have been enough to see Christian Wück’s side progress to the quarter-finals before the final round of group stage fixtures, and they thought they had taken the lead shortly after the quarter-hour mark through Klara Bühl.
However, her strike was ruled out for offside as Sjoeke Nüsken was obstructing Maja Bay Østergaard’s view between the sticks.
Germany’s tilt at the title suffered a significant blow in their previous match as captain Giulia Gwinn was ruled out for the rest of the competition due to injury, and they suffered a further setback here when they went behind.
Amalie Vangsgaard was the goalscorer, dispatching a powerful strike beyond Germany goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger to end a nine-game scoring drought for club and country.
Janni Thomsen then went close to a second for Denmark, before Germany were awarded a penalty following Frederikke Thøgersen’s handball, but a VAR intervention ruled that the offence had occurred outside the area.
Both sides had opportunities to strike at the end of the first half, but the scores remained level at the interval.
Yet, within 15 minutes of the restart, Germany were back on level terms from the penalty spot. Linda Dallman was felled by Katrine Velje in the box, and from 12 yards, Nüsken made no mistake.
Now with the bit between their teeth, Germany pressed forward and were soon in front.
On this occasion, Lea Schüller kept her cool to slot home from Jule Brand’s pass to score for the 14th time in her last 12 matches.
Schüller later headed narrowly wide, and while Denmark looked for a response, they were unable to truly trouble Berger.
As such, Wück’s outfit held on for the three points that realistically puts them into the knockout stages, and while they will be without Gwinn, they will be hopeful of going deep into the tournament and potentially adding to their record haul of eight overall victories at the Euros.
Denmark, meanwhile, exit at the group stage for a second consecutive Euros after back-to-back semi-final appearances in 2013 and 2017.
Flashscore Player of the Match: Lea Schüller (Germany)