Germany furious after being denied penalty for ‘clear handball’ in Euro 2022 final defeat to England
- Seb Sternik
- 31 July 2022
German manager Martina Voss-Tecklenburg criticised the match official and VAR following her team's Euro 2022 heartbreak against England.
The eight-time winners of the competition were denied a ninth crown after Chloe Kelly's extra-time goal helped the Lionesses to a historic 2-1 victory at Wembley.
England lifted their first major international title in front of a record 87,000 fans at the home of football.
Ella Toone opened the scoring for Sarina Wiegman's side, but the match was taken to extra-time after Lina Magull bagged the equaliser in the 80th minute.
England ultimately came out on top, though Germany were not impressed after being denied a first-half penalty.
Skipper Leah Williamson appeared to handle the ball on her own goal line, but despite a check from the Video Assistant Referee, the spot kick was not awarded.
Voss-Tecklenburg slammed referee Kateryna Monzul in the post-match press conference for not rechecking the incident herself.
The opening half hour in a picture 🙃
— Germany (@DFB_Team_EN) July 31, 2022
WIR #IMTEAM 🇩🇪 #hungriGER #WEURO2022 #ENGGER 0-0 pic.twitter.com/L90pYOhz10
The German manager said: "We managed to have some attacks, but what I'm thinking about now is there was a situation at 0-0 where there was a clear handball in the box and VAR looked at it and didn't award the penalty.
"In such a big game, it's difficult to cope with that. I'm asking, why didn't the referee look at it? That would have given us more safety if we'd scored."
She added: "On this level and in the final of a European championship, this didn't happen. Why didn't they look at it? Sometimes it happens to others, it happened to us today, and if it had happened to England I wouldn't be content either, it bothers me."
Voss-Tecklenburg also congratulated the Lionesses on the win, adding: "We were close but England withstood the pressure. Congratulations to them. We are very sad that we lost. We're in a process; it wasn't quite enough, so we have to do a little bit more. We grow from games like this."
