Shoot-out win sends 10-player Germany to the semi-finals | OneFootball

Germany played 105 of 120 minutes with 10 players but defeated France to seal their spot in the Euro 2025 semi-final.

It's difficult to have imagined that this game would have gone to penalties) within the first 15 minutes of the game.

In a moment of madness, Kathrin Hendrich pulled the hair of Griedge Mbock who was attacking a set-piece. Initially, the foul went unpunished but VAR intervened and Hendrich was shown a straight red card.

Grace Geyoro was the one to take the resulting penalty and she just managed to score despite Ann-Katrin Berger getting a hand to it.

Despite being down to 10 players, the Germans equalised ten minutes later when Sjoeke Nüsken headed in from Klara Bühl's corner.

As you would expect, France had plenty of the ball with their superior numbers but struggled to break the German resistance.

When the French did at last find a way through then the offside flag stopped them with a potential goal in the first and second halves being ruled out.

Christian Wück's side deserve plenty of credit for how they coped with inferior numbers and the effort they gave even as the game went into extra-time. Although they did have a golden chance to take the lead when Selma Bacha was penalised for a foul on Jule Brand in the area.

Nüsken took the resulting penalty but her effort was poor allowing Pauline Peyraud-Magnin to get down and prevent Germany from taking the lead.

Instead the game went to extra-time and with 104 minutes gone Berger provided the save of the tournament when a headed effort deflected off the head of defender Janina Minge.

At this point Berger was suddenly out of position with the ball looping over her but somehow the Gotham FC goalkeeper managed to leap and claw the dropping ball away just before it was about to cross the line.

There was almost one late twist in the final seconds of the game when Melvine Malard, about 35-40 yards out, lashed an unlikely effort that bounced off the bar.

So the game went to penalties and it was a very different shoot-out than the one seen between England and Sweden. Amel Majri saw one penalty saved while Sara Däbritz – on as a 120th minute substitute – saw her effort hit the bar.

After finishing 4-4, penalties went to sudden death and it was the seventh set of penalties where the quarter-final was decided.

Despite missing during the game, Chelsea's Nüsken buried her spot-kick with Alice Sombath then seeing her penalty saved by Berger to give the Germans an unlikely win.

This was a truly spirited performance from Germany – they will need to replicate against Spain in the semi-final.