Kindly please!

On command, the players switched on their smiles, as requested by the photographers.

The schedule before the European Championship is tight, so that the camp of the German Football Association (DFB) also has to improvise.

The official team photo, which the European Football Association (UEFA) needs to show the final preparations for the event in England, has nothing to do with the final squad, with national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg at the tournament that begins for the Germans in London intends to succeed.

Marc Heinrich

sports editor.

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She is currently preparing her team in a camp on the sponsor's premises in Herzogenaurauch.

Of the 28 players who were invited, five will be successively canceled by June 26th.

UEFA rejected the Germans' request to be able to expand the squad due to the pandemic in order to be able to react to corona infections;

more than 23 chosen ones are not allowed to travel to the island.

Alexandra Popp was the last of Voss-Tecklenburg's candidates to feel how quickly and unpredictably the virus struck.

The Wolfsburg striker was the only one who tested positive.

The captain has to isolate herself from the rest of the squad until further notice.

Popp can assume that if she recovers without complications, she will still be able to attend the European Championship.

internal competition

The Germans, who used to be considered the measure of all things not only because they had won eight European Championship titles and who have lost direct contact with the world elite for some time now, can hardly do without their experience.

Voss-Tecklenburg uses the stay in Franconia to stir up internal competition - and thus to make her ensemble resilient.

In the draw for the preliminary round of the European Championship, the Germans got into a difficult group.

Opponents are Denmark, Spain and Finland;

only the first two places qualify for the quarter-finals.

"I have a lot of faith in the team.

The goal is that we get very far," said the national coach, who does not feel the pressure as a burden after the sobering performance at the 2019 World Cup in France (out in the quarter-finals).

DFB director Oliver Bierhoff issued the requirement for all teams that they have to reach at least the semi-finals at major international events.

In order to be able to live up to this claim, the women have to be more stable defensively than they were recently in the World Cup qualifier in the 2-3 win against Serbia.

On the post between the posts, Voss-Tecklenburg trusts Merle Frohms, who is still from Frankfurt, who will return to VfL Wolfsburg as a goalkeeper after the summer break.

Along with central defender Kathy Hendrich from FC Bayern and midfield strategist Sara Däbritz (Paris Saint-Germain), she is one of the few protagonists who can be sure of having a regular place in the starting lineup.

Frohms will follow Almuth Schult at VfL, who is moving to the United States to end her career.

Schult's suggestion that it was by no means "set in stone" that she had to be content with number two in the national team was countered by Voss-Tecklenburg by publicly expressing her confidence in Frohms.

The national coach definitely wants to avoid personnel discussions that could adversely affect the course of the tournament.

"Of course that strengthens immensely," said Frohms.

And she added that she was very confident: "We want to win the title," the 27-year-old was the first to make a courageous statement in Herzogenaurach, which was then repeated in a similar tone by everyone in the team.

July 6 will show whether words are followed by deeds.