GERMANY forward Jule Brand scored one goal and made another as her side battled to a 2-0 win over tournament debutantes Poland in their Group C opener at the Women’s Euros in St. Gallen on Friday, but the Germans suffered a blow when captain Giulia Gwinn left the field injured.
Gwinn, who has suffered two anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries previously in her career, was helped from the field in tears in the 40th minute after twisting her knee while making a last-ditch tackle to prevent Poland captain Ewa Pajor from scoring.
“Giulia is a very important player for us on the pitch, with her performance and her mentality. I think we’ve all noticed a little bit of a twist — now, the most important thing is that hopefully it doesn’t look too bad,“ goal-scorer Brand said after the game.
Eight-times champions Germany have not lifted the trophy since winning in Sweden in 2013 but, after an ineffective first half, they went up the gears in the second to beat a Polish team that played with pride and passion but came up short on the night.
After dominating much of the scoreless opening 45 minutes, the Germans finally made the breakthrough seven minutes into the second half when Brand cut inside before firing a soaring, curling left-foot shot into the top-left corner of the Polish goal past the despairing dive of Kinga Szemik.
Sjoeke Nuesken and Klara Buehl both should have scored with headers before Lea Schueller finally got the second in the 66th minute, expertly exploiting a sliver of space in Poland’s offside line to steal in behind and score with a header from Brand’s cross.
The lively Pajor represented Poland’s best chance of scoring on the night and she had a number of good chances, but Ann- Katrin Berger pulled off a string of fine saves in the German goal to keep her clean sheet intact.
With Sweden having beaten Denmark 1-0 earlier, the Germans go into their game against the Danes in Basel on Tuesday on top of Group C ahead of the second-placed Swedes, who face Poland in Lucerne later the same evening.
