By Ivan Yeo
It may have only been the quarterfinals, but Friday’s matchup between Germany and France had the feel of a World Cup final.
Top-ranked Germany and third-ranked France met in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium on Friday afternoon for the right to move onto the semifinals, and while it may have been a little too early in the World Cup for these two teams to be playing against each other, they still delivered a classic performance.
France delivered the first strike deep into the second half, and seemed poised to knockout the Germans, but a handball call followed by a penalty late in the half enabled to keep Germany time, extra time and the penalty shootout followed, and German keeper Nadine Angerer made the save she needed to make to see Germany onto the semifinals.
The French seized advantage in the 64th minute. France played a long ball from the back towards Germany’s penalty area. German efender Babett Peter headed a ball out of the box, but the ball went right to Louisa Necib. Adding insult to injury for Peter, Necib fired a ball that deflected off the German defender and sailed past Angerer at the far post to stake France to the lead.
Les Blues held the lead for the next 20 minutes, but Germany caught a break, starting when Anja Mittag, already inside the penalty area, attempted to play a ball towards the six-yard box, but the ball hit off the hand of France’s Amel Majri and the head official immediately signaled for the the penalty spot. Celia Sasic stepped up to the penalty spot and buried the shot to the left while French keeper Sarah Bouhaddi’s momentum took her right.
So 90 minutes were not enough to decide matters between the european powers, and apparently neither were an additional 30 minutes, which left he shootout to decide the winner. Both teams converted their first four penalties, Sasic converted to put Germany ahead, but Angerer guessed correctly on Claire Lavogez’s penalty, diving to her left to deny Lavogez and see the Germans through to the semifinals.
