The German national team came to England with clear ideas.

The overriding intention is to have a say in the awarding of the title.

In this ambitious project, which if successful will last almost four weeks, every opportunity should be used in front of the public, who are looking more than ever at this European Championship, to polish their own reputation, which has suffered on previous occasions.

Marc Heinrich

sports editor.

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This works extremely well for the first time.

The convincing start to the tournament (4-0 win over Denmark) was followed on Tuesday in London by the second performance that was well worth seeing, which sometimes offered brilliant football moments and, to top off the evening celebration, gave them three more points, with which they increased their haul to six points : The Germans defeated Spain 2-0.

The goals were scored by Klara Bühl (3rd minute) and Alexandra Popp (37th).

The ensemble of national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg is leading Group B - and this will also be the case after the duel with the Finns who have already been eliminated at the end of the preliminary round this Saturday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the European Football Championship and on ZDF) change nothing in Brighton.

Which has the pleasant side effect that the Germans will avoid the English in the quarter-finals next Thursday, and there is no doubt about their current class after the 8-0 win against Norway.

So far, the venture on the island could hardly have been more promising.

Voss-Tecklenburg opted for a line-up in which she used the experienced Popp.

The 31-year-old from Wolfsburg replaced Lea Schüller from Munich in the storm center, who announced on Monday that she had contracted Corona.

Popp herself had only recovered from the viral infection in June and, at least according to the original plans, was to be gradually rebuilt, also in view of a serious knee injury that had left her out of action for a long time.

Now, however, the national coach decided to give her preference over Frankfurt's Laura Freigang, who was much less experienced on the big stage - a move that should pay off, as it soon turned out.

Popp led the team on the field for an hour as captain and offensive trailblazer.

Otherwise, Voss-Tecklenburg did not make any changes to the starting eleven compared to the win against Denmark (4-0) four days earlier.

For the Spaniards, too, their colleague Jorge Vilda had to make changes that he would hardly have considered in more carefree moments;

he was missing two excellent individual players in Alexia Putellas (torn cruciate ligament) and Jennifer Hermoso (internal ligament injuries) – which the rest of the squad couldn't compensate for as easily this time as they did in the 4-1 win over Finland on Friday.

What Vilda apparently did not point out extensively enough in his introduction to the encounter with the DFB guard was the fact that the German tactical device currently includes courageous pressing, which paid off after less than 180 seconds with the opening goal: Lucia Garcia had passed the ball back to goalkeeper Sandra Panos with the intention of starting the build-up.

However, the attempt remained

because the keeper crashed the tee.

The ball landed at Bühl's penalty spot.

The Munich native immediately recognized the favorable situation, hit another hook and then fired in with a powerful left-footed shot into the bottom right corner to make it 1-0.

This tailor-made start calmed the nerves and brought security against an opponent who had no less than eighty percent possession of the ball in the early stages, but had to deal with a German defense in which the willingness to run was right: Kathrin Hendrich, Lena Oberdorf, Marina Hegering and Felicitas Rauch anticipated actions and were therefore able to intervene in good time.

They were lucky too.

Garcia nearly made up for her mishap on her own in the 10th minute – she rounded goalkeeper Merle Frohms but then hit the side netting from a tight angle;

Mariona Caldentey also aimed just wide of the right post (18').

Only after about half an hour did both sides reduce the hustle and bustle a bit, with which they had hardly allowed themselves a breather at first.

Nevertheless, nothing changed in the attractiveness of the performance.

The women in the black and white jerseys of the traditionally red-clad Selección gave a lesson in effectiveness: Rauch flicked a corner kick into the center of the penalty area, where Popp climbed the highest and increased the lead to 2-0 with his head.

It was her 55th goal in 116 internationals.

With passion in every duel

After the break, the Spaniards remained dominant in terms of pace and pace, but couldn't find a gap because the German back four and defensive midfield laid out a tight net in which the attackers kept getting tangled up.

Popp was replaced by her Wolfsburg club-mate Tabea Wassmuth in the 61st minute, and the team's focus was now on combining their efforts to secure the advantage and provide relief on counterattacks.

If the worst came to the worst, Frohms reacted quickly as the last resort, including against Caldentey (71').

With every minute that the Spaniards were shown the limits of their cabaret, the hectic pace of their efforts increased.

That could only be good for the Germans, they threw themselves into every duel with passion and hugged each other, both exhausted and happy, when the French referee Stéphanie Frappart blew the final whistle and was applauded by the 16,000 spectators at the Brentford Community Stadium 10 p.m. local time sealed their coup.