Goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger stars for Germany at the Women's European Championship
Germany recovered from going a player and a goal down early on to hold France to a 1-1 draw in their Women's European Championship quarterfinal and triumph on penalties .
A stunning team performance saw Germany stifle the France onslaught and when Les Bleus did get through they came up against the impassable Berger.
The Gotham FC goalkeeper was — unsurprisingly — named player of the match but Berger was quick to deflect the praise for her display onto her teammates.
'I was not happy that we had to go to a penalty shootout … but I think, I did my part of the game now,' Berger said. 'Because the team, in 120 minutes, they worked incredibly hard and I think that all the credit should go to the team, not me.
'Maybe it was the decisive moment in the penalty shootout, but everyone here should talk about the performance of the team because that was amazing and incredible.'
'Amazing' and 'incredible' could also be used to describe Berger's performance.
The 34-year-old saved nine of the 10 shots she faced, with her best of the night — and possibly of the whole tournament — coming in extra time when a backward header from Germany captain Janina Minge had Berger scrambling back to scoop it off the line with an astonishing one-handed stop to spare her teammate's blushes.
Then came her heroics in the shootout.
Berger saved the first penalty she faced, from Amel Majri, and clinched a 6-5 victory in the shootout when she dove to her left to deny Alice Sombath and spark Germany's celebrations.
That secured a spot in Wednesday's semifinal against Spain in Zurich.
Berger was part of the Germany squad that lost to England in the final of Euro 2022, although she was an unused substitute. She revealed afterward that she had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer for a second time during that tournament.
Berger managed to beat the disease again and the only outward sign is a tattoo on her neck with the phrase 'All we have is now' that she got done to cover the scars.
'I feel like I'm not a really emotional person,' Berger said. 'I am glad I'm here and I am glad that I have the team I have.
'Obviously the time here just makes me proud to be here and whatever happened in 2022 is in the past and I am looking forward now to the future and, for me now, I live my best life and I am in the semifinal.'
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It's what Thierry Gouvenou deserves, after all. 📸 Postcard of the day : les four castles of Lastours 📸Carte postale du jour : les quatre châteaux de Lastours #TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 20, 2025 The Tour's route designer spoke to The Athletic before this year's race and said that his aim was 'to find difficulties in every corner of France'. Sunday's stage 15 was a perfect example of him doing precisely that. What could have been a run-of-the-mill transition stage — effectively a functional route to get the race away from the Pyrenees and towards eastern France — was anything but. Advertisement Two category three and one category two climb were placed perfectly to coax the sort of furious racing we saw all day, and the narrow wooded lanes of the Pas du Sant, so typical of the Aude region, were the perfect atmospheric prelude to Tim Wellens' winning attack, shortly before the race emerged onto a wide main road like wild beasts spilling out of a forest. Add Sunday's stage, then, to the growing list of great parcours in the 2025 Tour de France. Gouvenou not only knows virtually every inch of France, he also knows how to turn his country into a canvas for great bike racing. Duncan Alexander Tadej: Enjoy 😉 Tim: Will do 🥇 Congratulations from the boss / Les félicitations du patron 😎#TDF2025 — Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 20, 2025 The second rest day of this year's Tour comes on Monday, and the riders will savour it because on Tuesday it's... The race resumes with a set-piece finish up Mont Ventoux. It's a flat day for 130km until the riders reach the town of Bedoin and commence what's generally accepted to be the hardest of the three routes up the 'Giant of Provence'. Iban Mayo's record ascent of 55:51 has stood since the 2004 Criterium du Dauphine, but is surely in danger of being toppled here. For more cycling, follow Global Sports on The Athletic app via the Discover tab
