Germany ease pressure on Jones with Faroe thrashing
October 24, 2017
Germany banished memories of last week's historic defeat to Iceland with a resounding 11-0 victory over the Faroe Islands on Tuesday.
"Eleven goals did the team good and boosted confidence," said under-fire Germany coach Steffi Jones. "We all know we must qualify for the World Cup."
Jones made seven changes to the team that had slipped to third in their group after that first loss in qualifiers in 26 games and had demanded her side show a positive reaction. She wouldn't be disappointed.
It was one-way traffic right from the start and the only surprise in the opening stages was that it took Germany 12 minutes to open the scoring. The floodgates then opened after Alexandra Popp had put the hosts ahead.
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Just 20 minutes later, Germany had raced into a 5-0 lead. The chances continued to flow as Germany played with power and panache. Popp grabbed a second to make it six just before the break. The only point of criticism was that the scoreline could - and certainly should - have been much higher.
It was much the same story in the second half. Three minutes after the restart, Lina Magull picked up where Popp had left off to increase the lead to seven.
But the star of the show was Hasret Kayikci, who plundered four goal in the final half hour to take the win into double figures.
In the end, the team fell short of recording their biggest-ever margin of victory – 17-0 against Kazakhstan in 2011 – but did achieve their main aim of returning to the top of Group 5 to lead the Czech Republic and Iceland by two points.