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Celebrations in the German team

Photo:

Beautiful Sports / Wunderl / IMAGO

The German women's national soccer team has qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris (from July 26th to August 11th).

The decisive factor was the game for third place in the Nations League against the Netherlands, which ended 1-0 (0-0) for Germany.

Klara Bühl scored the winning goal (66th minute).

A little earlier in the evening, Spain won the final against France 2-0.

Together with these two teams, the German selection will represent Europe at the Olympic tournament in the summer.

It was an unbalanced first half in which the Dutch had more possession in the opponent's half and dominated the action, but the Germans had the greater chances.

Oranje only managed a dangerous shot from Wieke Kaptein (7th), which was initiated by a poor clearance attempt by DFB goalkeeper Merle Frohms, and a long-range shot from Danielle van de Donk that was too high (21st).

Gwinn makes it too complicated

Germany, on the other hand, could almost have celebrated an own goal when Dutch defender Caitlin Dijkstra (12') extended a header.

Klara Bühl made repeated penetrations on the left side, but the crosses were imprecise.

Sjoeke Nüsken had the best opportunity with a shot from the turn that landed at the left post from the edge of the penalty area (25th).

At the end of the first round, Giulia Gwinn was able to move quickly from the right into the penalty area, but decided to hook instead of finish and was stopped (40th).

Captain Alexandra Popp was hardly fed any crosses.

With a rare high pass, the striker headed too centrally towards the goal (44').

Interim national coach Horst Hrubesch changed at half-time and took Sydney Lohmann out of the attack for Lea Schüller, who only celebrated shortly after the restart.

However, she was offside when she supposedly hit the ball on the left side (49').

Schüller forces her luck

The attacker brought some momentum into the German offensive game, and Schüller was almost able to sneak the ball in in the 64th minute.

But others were involved in the opening goal: Lena Oberdorf headed a loose ball over to the left post, where Bühl shot in from close range (66th).

Oberdorf had already initiated the attack strongly from the center.

But things weren't over for Schüller yet.

First with a header (76th) and then from a half-right position (77th), the substitute initially missed making it 2-0, but then she headed in an unstoppable cross from Bühl (78th).

The game was decided and Germany's participation in the Olympics was perfect.

It's a return for the DFB women; the team didn't qualify in Tokyo three years ago.

At the last Olympic participation so far, in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Germany won the gold medal in the final against Sweden.

mrk