Germany head coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg was disappointed that her side were not awarded a penalty in their 2-1 defeat to England in yesterday’s UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 final at Wembley.
In a moment of panic in the England box, the ball looked to brush the arm of Lionesses captain Leah Williamson. VAR took a look at the incident and no offence was deemed to have been committed, much to the disappointment of the Germans and their head coach.
When speaking in the post-match press conference, Voss-Tecklenburg questioned why her side were not given a penalty.
“There was a situation at 0-0 where there was a clear hand ball in the box and VAR looked at it but didn’t award a penalty,” Voss-Tecklenburg said. “In such a game, it’s quite difficult to cope with that because I’m asking myself why the referee didn’t look at it?
“I don’t want to use that word (cheated), it’s football. There are decisions which aren’t correct but at a final of the European Championship, this shouldn’t happen. I’d like to have a discussion about that – why did they not look at it, was there no clear communication? This is something I would really like to ask.
“If it had happened to them, I would not be content either and this is something which really bothers me.”
Despite the defeat, Voss-Tecklenburg did offer her congratulations to England as they won a first EURO title.
She said “England are deserved champions, we have to congratulate them. If you score two goals against Germany, you’re are deserved European champions so congratulations.
“Emotionally, we gave it all, the sweat, the fight, we gave everything on the pitch. You can’t really find the right words to tell the team so I just have to process all of this first. I think tomorrow or the day after I will have a different feeling about it.”
After winning six consecutive UEFA Women’s EURO titles between 1995 and 2013, Germany have now failed to lift the trophy in each of the last two tournaments.