The German and French women’s national teams faced off in Strasbourg, France in a friendly in front of over 18,000 passionate fans. The game ended in a 3-3 draw, with Les Bleues unable to hold onto a 3-2 lead for the final ten minutes of the match.
Germany struck first in the 12th minute, with Bianca Schmidt putting one past France’s Sarah Bouhaddi from inside of the 6 yard box after a nice offensive build-up by Germany. The lead would not last long though.
Louisa Necib deserves to make the highlight reels in France tonight with her goal in the 15th minute. After turning outside the top corner of the 18 yard box, she fired a perfectly placed ball into the top left corner of the net. German goalkeeper Almuth Schult reached for it, but was no match.
Necib would score again only seven minutes later to give France the lead. Everything went wrong for Schult as she received a rushed back pass from defender Saskia Bartusiak and was unable to clear the ball past Marie-Laure Delie. The rebound went off of Schult directly to Necib, who somehow was all alone in the box. She had the time to calmly settle the ball and slot it to the left of Schult, who was still off-balance from rushing back to the goal mouth.
France would put in their third goal courtesy of the German defense again in the 54th minute. Another failed back pass from Bartusiak, this one never even close to its intended target, was intercepted by Delie. Delie was wise to keep her shot low, as the ball went under the diving Schult at the top of the box.
Germany started to dig itself out of the hole its defense had created by the 67th minute. After the Germans were granted a corner kick, Nadine Keßler found herself at the perfect place to put away a clearance from Sandrine Soubeyrand that Bouhaddi had little time to react to.
Finally, Germany would tie the game in the 81st minute with Keßler’s second goal of the night. After Bouhaddi managed a point blank save on her first shot but was unable to control the ball, Keßler merely had to put her knee on the ball to force it into the back of the net over a falling Bouhaddi.
The French were stunned, but did not have much in the way of clear chances for the rest of the match. The Germans, on the other hand, nearly managed to steal the game with only seconds left in regulation time. Célia Okoyino da Mbabi managed a stunner of a mid-air shot in traffic outside of the 6 yard box, but the ball hit the underside of the crossbar and was cleared away by a swarming French defense.
Germany was lucky to overcome their defensive challenges and earn the draw. Keßler came up big twice for the team, whereas da Mbabi stayed quiet for too long offensively. For Les Bleues, it was clearly a game they should have won, considering the amount of time they outplayed Germany.
Germany continues its unbeaten streak, now 19 games.
