A trio from the FA Women’s Super League have returned to Germany women’s squad for the upcoming games at the BRITA-Arena in Wiesbaden against Australia (Saturday, 10th April, 16:10 CEST) and Norway (Tuesday, 13th April, 16:00 CEST). Ann-Katrin Berger, Melanie Leupolz (both Chelsea) and Leonie Maier (Arsenal) are all in Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s squad of 26 players. Those three players were not able to be called up for the fixtures in February due to England being on the list of countries with mutations of coronavirus, meaning they weren’t allowed to travel. However, this is no longer the case, allowing their selection for these two games.

Fabienne Dongus from TSG Hoffenheim makes a senior Germany squad for the first time, while FC Bayern’s Sydney Lohmann misses out due to injury. Almuth Schult (VfL Wolfsburg) will train with the team for several day, but isn’t in the squad to play, just like in February.

Head coach Voss-Tecklenburg said: “Fabienne has impressed thanks to consistent performances in the FLYERALARM Frauen-Bundesliga. We’re now excited to see how she does with us. Regarding Almuth, we want to see her current performance levels just like last time and give her a chance to take part in some of the camp again.”

The Germany women last faced Australia in the group stages of the 2016 Rio Olympics in August 2016 (2-2). The two sides have met just four times overall. “It doesn’t happen often that you face Australia,” said Martina Voss-Tecklenburg. “I’m looking forward to this top-level match-up, as the majority of the Australian team play in Europe’s top divisions. It will be a very interesting game for us, one where we will be able to draw several conclusions from.”

Germany versus Norway is a classic match-up in the world of women’s football. The two countries have played each other 41 times, most recently in the 2020 Algarve Cup (4-0 win for Germany). “Over the last decades, Norway have helped grow women’s football and have been one of the top teams in Europe for several years. They also have a very experienced and ambitious coach in Tony Gustavsson, who has worked extremely well together with Pia Sundhage and Jill Ellis. Both these games against top teams will help our young side to gain experience.”

The Germany women started 2021 with friendlies against Belgium (2-0 win) and the Netherlands (2-1 loss) in mid-February. The team had ended 2020 by winning all eight of their qualifying games on their way to booking their tickets to next summer’s European Championship in England.

(DFB)