The miracle in the Allgäu failed to materialize, although the German team did everything they could to qualify for the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing despite a difficult starting position. With 3:2 nP, national coach Thomas Schädler's team won the match against Denmark with goals from Julia Zorn (2) and Lilli Welcke, but one point was enough for the Danes to book their ticket to China.
If the Austrians won against Italy at the same time, that would have been the case DEB-Team didn't have an easy win against Denmark. A six-goal difference would have been necessary. And yet the women around Captain Zorn accepted the challenge.
After a goalless first third, Zorn (ESC Planegg) made it 31-1 in the 0st minute when she put in a rebound from behind the goal after a shot from Tanja Eisenschmid with her backhand. Inspired by this, 19-year-old Lilli Welcke (Mad Dogs Mannheim) with their second goal of the tournament, making it 2-0. It was a combination worth seeing that Welcke fired into the top right corner. However, the Danes didn't give up and were able to reduce the score to 2-1 shortly before the end of the middle period at the often described psychologically important point.
And it got even more difficult. Denmark equalized in the 48th minute. After that, the Germans tried everything, hit the crossbar and took the goalkeeper off the ice in favor of a sixth player. But it was no longer enough. The Danes celebrated at the end, even though they lost the match in a penalty shootout. The German team, on the other hand, wasn't really happy despite the national anthem for the winners (Julia Zorn had sunk the decisive penalty).
Next up for the German team is a tournament in December. The World Cup will most likely take place again in August. In 2025 there will be the next chance to qualify for the Olympics for the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina D'Ampezzo.
Voices about the tournament
Anne Bartsch about the course of the game: "I think we were ready to give everything from the beginning. Of course, the game was sometimes on Denmark's side, sometimes on ours. But we never gave up, fought and gave everything we could."
Yvonne Rothemund about missing the Olympic qualification: “Of course we are all disappointed now and have to collect ourselves first. The nice thing about team sports is that we're all in the same boat together. We will build each other up, mobilize new strengths and realign our focus.”
National coach Thomas Schädler about the match today: “We played our best game in this tournament today. We knew that Denmark was very good in defence. We put up a lot of pressure in the second third, were in their zone a lot and then failed to add one or two goals. After the equalizer we continued playing, tried everything, hit the crossbar, but then the game was over.”