Before her premiere, Ivana Martincic put her own professionalism aside for a moment.

"It's a great honor for me, I'm really looking forward to the game," enthused the 36-year-old referee before her debut in an international men's game, before she caught her emotions again.

"That," said the Croatian, "would be like that for everyone."

National coach Hansi Flick thinks the first time a referee is used in an international match of the German national soccer team after 113 years of international history. "I'm looking forward to it. That it happens is a normal process, ”said Flick at the press conference of the German Football Association (DFB) on Wednesday in Wolfsburg:“ The time has come to let a woman lead the game among the men ”. The day before, the European Football Union (Uefa) announced that Ivana Martincic would be assigned to the German World Cup qualifier on Thursday (8.45 p.m. / in the FAZ live ticker for the national team and on RTL) against Liechtenstein.

The Croatian is of course not a novelty in men's football. The French Stéphanie Frappart and the Ukrainian Kateryna Monsul led games in the World Cup qualifiers at the end of March. In the Bundesliga, Bibiana Steinhaus-Webb, who now works for the English association as a referee expert, was the only woman to date to whistle in men's games. Flick praised her as a successful referee pioneer. "We were already pioneers in Germany and have come to appreciate it," said the 56-year-old. "She always performed great."

Ivana Martincic comes from the small town of Koprivnica and used to play soccer herself. In 2008, on the advice of her father, a former two-tier referee, she took the whistle - and had a rapid career. "In the beginning it wasn't easy", she told "Sportske Novosti", football is mostly still a men's business in Croatia, "but the experiences have strengthened me".

This is not the first time that the 36-year-old is a pioneer in Wolfsburg. On September 10, she was the first woman to lead a game in the first Croatian men's league HNL. In October she whistled the European Championship qualifier for the U21 juniors of Latvia against San Marino (2-0). Martincic has also led two test matches for the German women's national team against Sweden and Italy. She has been a member of the Fifa elite group since 2019. Her “greatest wish” is to play at the Women's European Championship 2022 in England and “of course” at the hot men's classic Dinamo Zagreb against Hajduk Split.

The national association fights for them and prides itself on being part of the European “avant-garde”: besides Croatia, only France, the Czech Republic, Wales and the Ukraine currently have female referees in the first men's leagues.

"The clubs and players need time to accept me," said Martincic before her debut.

Referee boss Bruno Maric spoke of a "historic day".

Doubt?

None, he claims and made it clear: "She can do it!"