Klara Buhl says Germany are refusing to get carried away by the prospect of a Euro 2022 final showdown with England, after following the hosts into the semi-finals with victory over Austria.
Eight-times winners Germany booked their place in the last-four thanks to a 2-0 win in an entertaining quarter-final at the Brentford Community Stadium on Thursday night.
Bayern Munich midfielder Lina Magull opened the scoring midway through the first-half after a suspect clearance from Manuela Zinsberger and the Arsenal ‘keeper was more explicitly at fault for the late clincher as she fired against German skipper Alexandra Popp and saw the ball ricochet into an empty net.
Germany will face either France or the Netherlands in next Wednesday’s semi-final in Milton Keynes, with the winner heading to a sold-out Wembley on Sunday week, where one of England, Sweden and Belgium will lie in wait.
However, when asked whether a meeting with the hosts in front of 90,000 at the national stadium was already on German minds, winger Buhl said: “We’re just happy we’ve reached the semi-final. We want to enjoy the evening and until tomorrow we want to let emotions out and enjoy the moment.
“From tomorrow we will have the focus on the semi-final and of course we want to reach the final but we have to go step-by-step and we will continue like that.”
Germany impressed in topping what had been dubbed the Group of Death with a 100 per cent record, but were at times troubled by Austria, who struck the woodwork three times and ultimately had defensive errors to blame for their exit.
Austria boss Irene Fuhrmann has now watched her side frustrate both Germany and England, who edged the tournament opener between the teams 1-0 at Old Trafford, but could not split the two leading contenders.
“They’re very difficult to compare,” she said. “I think both teams have a lot of individual quality but also depth in the squad.
“Maybe England play a bit more direct and are more dynamic but Germany have fast players. I think they’re two teams that are pretty much on the same level.”
Germany wore black armbands in honour of the legendary Uwe Seeler, one of the country’s greatest players, who died earlier on Thursday at the age of 85, and manager Martina Voss-Tecklenburg dedicated the victory to his memory.
“We talked about him earlier because he kept messaging us and we knew he wanted to watch the games but we also knew his health wasn’t great,” she said. “It moved us emotionally today because we found out just after our team meeting - we heard he passed away and it moved us.
“It took a bit out of what we were feeling at that moment and getting focus back onto the game wasn’t easy but commiserations to his family. “He was a fantastic player and human being and he always said nice things to people who met him, was always supportive of us. Hopefully, we managed to give him some pleasure today.”
