In the 2000s, Germany was THE superpower of women's football, retaining the double world/European crown throughout the decade (Euro-2001, 2005 and 2009, World Cup-2003 and 2007).

And the Olympic title, which had always eluded him, finally fell into the hands of the Mannschaft in 2016 in Rio.

Since ?

The emblematic coach Sylvia Neid left, the succession was complicated (Steffi Jones, Horst Hrubesch, then Martina Voss-Tecklenburg) and on the ground, the Germans had to settle for two quarter-finals, at Euro-2017 and at the 2019 World Cup.

The defeat in France against Sweden three years ago was also synonymous with elimination in the race for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where they could not even defend their Olympic title.

But this does not mean that Martina Voss-Tecklenburg flies to England with her daughters without ambition.

"Yes, we are going to fight for the title," proclaims the coach in office since November 2018, in an interview with SID, a German sports press agency subsidiary of AFP.

"If we get into our tournament well, I am convinced that a lot of things are possible for us. We will be in the lucky bag again: I believe we are capable of a lot", insists "MVT".

The Germans will first have to get out of a complicated group B with Finland, Spain, weakened by the withdrawal of star Alexia Putellas (rupture of the cruciate ligaments of the left knee), and especially Denmark, vice-champion of Europe in 2017.

"Fast players up front"

German striker Alexandra Popp Popp during the Champions League final between her club, Bochum and Lyon on August 30, 2020 in San Sebastian Alvaro Barrientos POOL/AFP/Archives

Chance of the calendar, it is against these same Danes who had eliminated them in the quarterfinals of the previous Euro five years ago (2-1) that the English adventure begins for Germany.

And ideally, the teammates of Alexandra Popp would like to avoid the 2nd place of the group, promised to a very probable quarter-final against the host country, England, favorite of his group A with Austria, Norway and Northern Ireland.

"Obviously football is a sport of results, naturally we want to get the best result. But we also know that we are in the middle of a process. Maybe the performance will be good but the end result will not be. not", nuanced the coach.

"Our goal will be to stress each of our opponents, because we know we have fast players up front, and we know how to use them and how to set up our transition game," Voss-Tecklenburg said.

"For that we need to be compact, to push our opponents into disorder. So it will also be unpleasant against us for the opposing defenses," adds the coach.

To manage to raise the bar, the Mannschaft can count on its experienced players, starting with its Wolsfburg striker Alexandra Popp, the most capped (114 caps) and the top scorer in activity in the selection (53 goals).

But who will play his first Euro.

It is also on her young shoots who grew up at VfL Wofsburg and Bayern Munich, the two best German clubs, that Martina Voss-Tecklenburg drew, since a third of the 23 selected were born in the 2000s and that almost half are under 25.

The German Tabea Wassmuth (d) in the colors of Wolfsburg against FC Barcelona in the semi-final return of the Champions League on April 30, 2022 in Wolfsburg Tobias SCHWARZ AFP / Archives

Second top scorer in the 2021-2022 Champions League, Tabea Wassmuth (25) is enjoying the heyday of Wolfsburg, where young midfielder Lena Oberdorf (20) is also playing, while Bayern sees Klara Bühl (21 years), leader of this generation of the 2000s in the making.

© 2022 AFP