Captain Alexandra Popp has returned after a year injury break with large ambitions in the football national team.
“My goal is to become European champion,” said Popp on Wednesday, her 31st birthday, in the monastery portions in Ostwestfalen. There, the DFB team is preparing for the World Cup qualifiers on Saturday (16:10 pm / ARD) against Portugal in Bielefeld and Tuesday in Serbia.
The EM is in three months in England (6 to 31 July). The 111-colored national player Popp has tired hard for her first euro for a cartilage injury in the knee for her first euro and puts sets away. “Happy, full of gratitude and also proud”, therefore, be with the longcoming comeback in the circles of the national team.
“If it hooked somewhere in the reha, I thought of the European Championship to get up and keep up again,” Popp said, who plays the triple with the VfL Wolfsburg. It is still not physically at “100 percent, but that’s completely normal”.
Even club colleague Kathrin Hendrich is glad that the leader is back. “You realize that she is back because she has an extraordinary presence to her footballing skills,” said the defender who celebrated her 30th birthday on Wednesday.
large ambitionsy, the compulsory program for the World Cup 2023 is focused on Australia and New Zealand. As the leaders (18 points) of the group H, the so far flawless DFB selection can be used to fix the qualification in the optimal case. “Of course, that would give us peace,” said Popp, “we need the games but also use for the EM preparation.”