Football – German humility after the European Championship draw

Nia Künzer was stunned in the summer of 2023 when, as an ARD television expert, she accompanied the group games of the German soccer players at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from an NDR studio in Hamburg. Almost two decades after their golden goal, the DFB women actually traveled down under to reach for the third star, but returned home after the preliminary round. Failed after some disastrous performances against Morocco, Colombia and South Korea, although it was said everywhere that things couldn’t have been easier in the preliminary round.

Even at the 2025 European Championships in Switzerland, the German national team did not completely abandon the luck of the draw, but there was no exuberance to be heard at the Swiss Tech Convention Center in Lausanne. Logically, the opening opponent Poland, who qualified for the first time for the game on July 4th in St. Gallen, is an outsider, but over Denmark, the second opponent on July 8th in Basel, and the World Cup third-placed Sweden as the last group opponent on July 12th “You don’t have to say much about Zurich, two successful women’s football nations,” said Künzer in her role as DFB sports director after the draw on Monday evening. And then the 44-year-old added: “We approach every game with humility and respect.” The right attitude.

The German team recently fell behind early on in the European Championship qualification (4:1, 3:1) against Poland. Germany met Denmark with its star striker Pernille Harder from FC Bayern Munich in last year’s Olympic qualification (0:2, 3:0) with varying success. The connection to the long-running favorite Sweden, which was considered Germany’s favorite opponent for generations before this series was broken with a 1-2 defeat in the quarter-finals at the 2019 World Cup, is formative.

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France and England are threatening in the quarter-finals

If the DFB team survives the group phase, an absolute top-class team like France, England or the Netherlands could already be waiting in the European Championship quarter-finals. All three teams meet in Hammer Group D. Which is why national coach Christian Wück stated: “It could have been worse when I look at Group D.” Nevertheless, you have to be “very careful.” The 51-year-old knows that Germany, as eight-time European champions, is always one of the tournament favorites – regardless of upheaval or not.

Before the national coach trumpets such goals, internal conviction must first grow. One thing he could say: “We have enough individual quality in the team.” In the first four international matches under his direction there was the full range of fluctuations, with victories against England and Switzerland as well as defeats against Australia and Italy. Therefore, there will be significantly less experimentation in the Nations League against the Netherlands, Austria and Scotland in the new year.

“We want to get the core in place and give the team security.” After that, the first tailwind should come with a European Championship opening win against the Poles, in which Tanja Pawollek, the captain of Eintracht Frankfurt, and Ewa Pajor, the former top scorer from VfL Wolfsburg, play key roles arise. Wück knows: “The first game will be immensely important to gain self-confidence.”

DFB hopes for many German fans in Switzerland

The support from the stands should help in the venues near the border. DFB President Bernd Neuendorf hopes “that many fans will support our team on site because of the proximity.” The entry prices in the group phase are moderate at 25 and 40 Swiss francs, and each ticket entitles you to free train travel. UEFA applies the same standards for accommodation, VAR use or TV production as at the 2024 European Championship in Germany. There is still a big gap when it comes to prize money. It was 331 million euros for men, and at least 41 million euros for women – after 16 million euros at the 2022 European Championships in England. UEFA has recently stipulated that 30 to 40 percent must go to the players.

UEFA director Nadine Keßler promises “the biggest sporting event Switzerland has ever had.” A total of around 700,000 spectators will stream into the eight stadiums and more than 500 million people will watch on television. The men’s Club World Cup in the USA, which is temporarily played in parallel, is not viewed as competition. Former world footballer Keßler explained that she was not worried about five or six overlaps: “Getting full exclusivity is not so easy today.” Künzer added: “It is difficult to find weeks of the year where no major sporting event is running at the same time . I think women’s football and the attractiveness of the Euros speak for themselves.”

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