EURO 2025: DFB women play against Sweden for group victory

The German women's team must win against Sweden in Zurich this Saturday (kick-off 9 p.m. CEST) at the European Championship in Switzerland if they want to secure group victory and thus avoid world champions Spain in a possible European Championship semi-final later on.

Germany and Sweden each won their first two group matches against Poland and Denmark, respectively, thus qualifying for the quarterfinals. However, the Swedes (4-0) have a slightly better goal difference than the Germans (4-1). A draw is therefore not enough for the German national team to win the group.

National coach Christian Wück's team should be warned. When the match kicks off on Saturday, the Swedes will have been unbeaten for exactly one year: Their last defeat came on July 12, 2024, in a European Championship qualifier against France (1:2). Since then, they have won ten matches and drawn four.

In their hard-fought 2-1 victory against Denmark in their second group match, the German national team revealed some weaknesses. Penalty scorer Sjoeke Nüsken criticized their technical skills at times: "We have to stop that, urgently. It's really important that we continue to work on ourselves and get the basics down to the ground." Captain Giulia Gwinn, who will miss the rest of the tournament after suffering a knee injury in the opening match against Poland , is back with the team after treatment in Munich to cheer them on from the sidelines.

Voices:

National coach Christian Wück (Germany): "We don't have to hide from any nation. We have to make sure that we reach an absolute top level with everyone in the team."

Defender Rebecca Knaak (Germany): "Sweden is very physical overall, also strong on set pieces. But we also know that these are qualities we also have, and we will be optimally prepared."

Captain Kosovare Asllani (Sweden): "We see good chances, but Germany has a very good team. We have to be fully focused. It will be an exciting game. We want to win against Germany, not a draw."

Statistics:

The female footballers from Germany and Sweden have faced each other 31 times so far: the Germans won 21 times, the Swedes eight times, and two matches ended in a draw.

At European Championships, Sweden has failed to win a single one of their six encounters. The two teams met twice – in 1995 and 2001 – in a European Championship final, and both times the German women won the title.

Germany also emerged victorious in the 2003 World Cup final in the USA, with a golden goal from current DFB sporting director Nia Künzer to make it 2-1 after extra time. The last meeting between the two teams ended 0-0 in a friendly match in Duisburg in February 2023.