"A bitterly bought victory": Concerns about Gwinn overshadow DFB opener
Germany kicked off the European Championship with a 2-0 win against Poland. After the match, however, the main focus was on the injury to captain Giulia Gwinn.
After a challenge, Giulia Gwinn had to be substituted due to injury. IMAGO/Sven Simon
It could have been a perfect story from the DFB's perspective: Germany beat Poland 2-0 and started the European Championship in Switzerland with three points. Jule Brand opened the scoring with a stunning goal, the attack turned on, and Lea Schüller sealed the victory with a header. However, there was little talk about Brand or Schüller after the DFB's opening victory in St. Gallen . Concerns about their injured captain were clearly the focus.
Just over half an hour into the match, Giulia Gwinn made a strong tackle at the last moment to prevent Poland's striker Ewa Pajor from scoring from just a few meters away, but she unfortunately got stuck in the turf. After receiving treatment, the Munich player, who had already suffered two cruciate ligament injuries during her career, made one more attempt but was ultimately substituted in the 40th minute .
Brand has noticed "Knick" due to Gwinn's injury"It was a bitter victory for us," said national coach Christian Wück in an ARD interview, referring to Gwinn's injury. "We went straight to the locker room after the halftime break, gave her a big hug, and wished her good luck." Wück said an MRI is scheduled for Saturday, "her knee is affected. But she also prevented the goal, which we have to give her credit for. And we're all keeping our fingers crossed that it's not too serious."
Brand, who scored the opener herself and provided the assist for the second, spoke of a "very important player for us, on the pitch with her performance, but also with her mentality." She was absent from the second half along with Gwinn and may now be sidelined for a longer period. "We've noticed a slight dip in our sidelines. The most important thing right now is that things aren't looking so bad for her." Klara Bühl , Gwinn's teammate on the national team and at FC Bayern, said: "We're all behind her, we're with her, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that nothing bad comes of it."
Wück praises patience - Brand self-criticalAgainst a tightly packed Polish side, the German team struggled with Gwinn in the first half. The normally strong German offense rarely created chances. National coach Wück said: "Unfortunately, especially in the first half, we lacked quality in our crossing, and we also didn't have a good box lineup."
The key to success was "that we patiently let the ball roll." And of course, Brand, who was self-critical: "I didn't achieve much in the game today – except for those two things." Those two things were the Sunday shot in the 52nd minute and the cross for the 2-0 goal a good quarter of an hour later.
