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London, July 13 (AP): Germany ended Spain’s 24-match unbeaten run to advance to the quarterfinals at the Women’s European Championship with a 2-0 victory on Wednesday(IST).
Klara Bühl and Alexandra Popp scored for the Germans, who sealed top spot in Group B with a game to spare. The record eight-time European champions will play Group A’s runner-up, Austria or Norway, in the knockout round.
In Tuesday’s other game, Pernille Harder scored Denmark’s first goal at the tournament to secure the team’s first victory, a 1-0 win over Finland.
Host nation England, the Group A winner, awaits the team that finishes second in Group B, which will be determined when Spain plays Denmark on Saturday.
In front of 16,037 fans at Brentford’s stadium in west London, Germany’s opener in the third minute came after Spain goalkeeper Sandra Paños tried to make a clearance from a routine back-pass. But the ball struck Bühl, who turned inside Irene Paredes to shoot low into the bottom corner of the net.
Popp, the Germany captain, netted in the 36th from a header after connecting with Felicitas Rauch’s corner.
Spain could not convert its 66% possession into a goal, despite outshooting Germany. One close effort saw Mariona Caldentey’s volley tipped over by Germany goalkeeper Merle Frohms.
The Spanish did avoid conceding four as Denmark did against Germany in the Group B opener.
Denmark did recover from that setback by beating Finland in Milton Keynes. Harder, Denmark’s all-time leading scorer, netted her 69th international goal with a close-range header in the 72nd minute, pouncing after Karen Holmgaard nodded off the crossbar.
Denmark was the runner-up in the 2017 tournament after losing in the final to the Netherlands.
There was a setback for the Dutch with striker Vivianne Miedema testing positive for COVID-19, ruling her out of Wednesday’s Group C game against Portugal.