On the other side, a disappointed France, suffering their first-ever defeat at this stage, will now turn their focus to the bronze-medal match on Sunday, entering it with two losses at Germany/Netherlands 2025.
The German squad, which has already secured Germany’s first World Championship medal since 2007 with their much-talked-about “Christmas fairy tale”, shone on Friday evening with a fantastic defensive display.
The defense, anchored by Aimée von Pereira, left the French star ensemble visibly frustrated. When captain Antje Döll scored her ninth goal to make it 24-19 with ten minutes left, the big final party began in the stands.
Goalkeeper Katharina Filter was also celebrated as one of the key players with numerous saves helping to finally end a two-decade-long France curse. In Sunday’s final Germany will face either co-hosts Netherlands or Olympic champions Norway.
"Hats off to the girls," said coach Markus Gaugisch on ARD: "You can see how cool they are and how much faith they have in their strength: The defense. The whole past weeks have been fantastic, you just can’t get enough of this feeling." Viola Leuchter, completely overwhelmed, said: "I’m done. It was 60 minutes of pure battle."
With the semifinal win, the team around the outstanding Emily Vogel (5 goals) also secured a record bonus: A silver medal will be rewarded by the federation with 300,000 euros, and if they win the title, the team will receive 425,000 euros.
As in all their previous World Championship matches, Germany started with a bang against the Olympic silver medalists. After Filter’s third save in the tenth minute, the vocal German fans began chanting “Kathi-Filter,” and Döll scored her third goal to make it 5-4 (10’). But that was just the beginning: Germany kept up the pressure, and Lisa Antl made it 10-6 after just over 15 minutes.
On the court, the German defense continued to celebrate every duel won. Even though France closed the gap to just one goal within a few minutes (20’), the German outfit side stayed in control. Filter also saved a seven-meter penalty after exactly 24 minutes to prevent the French from equalizing. And when backline player Vogel hammered the ball into the net at 97 km/h to make it 15-12 at halftime, the small block of German fans with their flags went wild.
"The national coach said we came here as thieves. We want to steal the final and the joy from the French. Right now, we’re on a really good path," said German team manager Anja Althaus before the start of the second half.
Germany continued on this path undeterred in the second half. Filter kept making saves at the back, while Annika Lott took charge in attack. It was 19-15 after 36 minutes, and the match became more heated. After a headshot on Nieke Kühne, France’s Onacia Ondono was shown a straight red card.
While Germany continued to draw fouls smartly in attack and made the most of their chances, France kept running into a wall. Time was on Germany’s side and when they extended the gap to five goals 12 minutes from the end, the match was more or less decided.