Germany edged China 1-0 in a rugged FIFA Women's World Cup Finals encounter at Roazhon Park in Rennes on June 8, with 15,283 fans witnessing a match dominated by niggly fouls, stop-start play and little in the way of high-quality football. The reigning Olympic champions looked to explode out of the blocks early, with Shimeng Peng's vital punch clear preventing Alexandra Popp's cross from being headed home by Svenja Huth just 100 seconds into the clash of these long-time rivals. Ninety seconds later, Sara Daebritz stormed forward from deep and unleashed a twenty-five yarder which flew inches past Peng's left-hand post, the signal for Germany to continue to press on in attack. A lack of accuracy was their downfall, however, with deliveries frequently failing to find their intended targets, in large part due to the resolute defending of the "Steel Roses", whose efforts were so effective that Peng was rarely called upon to make a save. The goalkeeper was relieved to see Carolin Simon's teasing cross-shot rattle the crossbar in the seventeenth minute, by which time China could well have been in front on the scoreboard. Three minutes earlier, an awful pass from Sara Doorsoun was pounced on by Gu Yasha, who worked a one-two with Wang Shanshan before surging towards the edge of the penalty area, where she opted to play the ball to Yang Li, rather than shoot herself. The touch Yang took to control the ball proved crucial, as when she fired the trigger a second later, the recovering figure of Doorsoun had materialised twixt ball and target, the defender making up for her blunder by diverting Yang's shot to safety. This scare aside, Germany were the more dominant attacking force, with Popp landing a header on the roof of the net following a Simon cross in the twentieth minute. Huth lashed a twenty-yarder a yard over the top seven minutes later, while on the half-hour, Peng punched the ball off the head of Popp after Daebritz, Doorsoun and Huth had combined on the left to present Dzsenifer Marozsan with the chance to deliver quality. By this time, the physical nature of the contest was much in evidence, Popp in particular the target of China's at times overly aggressive challenges. Canadian referee Marie-Soleil Beaudoin ended up showing four yellow cards to the Asian side - suffice to say they're now at long odds to take out the tournament's FIFA Fair Play award! Just prior to the half-time whistle, there was a flurry of attacking activity, from which China should have gone to the dressing rooms a goal to the good. Firstly, Wang played in Yang on the left, only for the covering figure of Doorsoun to intervene in the 42nd minute. Two minutes later, the "Steel Roses" squandered a glorious opportunity to break the deadlock. Pouncing on a loose ball, Zhang Rui stormed forward before playing in Yang, who had just

German goalkeeper Almuth Schult to beat. The striker curled the ball round the diving custodian, only to see the ball rebound off the far post. Zhang was first to the rebound, and after controlling it saw her header pawed away by Schult, who then saved at the feet of Yang. As if that scare wasn't enough for the Germans to cope with, right on half-time, Yang sent Wang clear through the middle, from where she directed the ball into the stride of the completely unmarked figure of Gu, on the left-hand side of the penalty area. Schult instantly advanced off her line to narrow the angle, an approach which put Gu in two minds and prompted her to take the wrong option. Instead of backing herself and going for goal, she looked to pick out Yang or Wang in the middle. But Marina Hegering stepped in to clear the danger and bring a scoreless first half to a close. Both teams made half-time substitutions, but the rugged nature of the contest continued unabated in the second spell. Peng prevented Giulia Gwinn's delivery from reaching the incoming Kathrin Hendrich, its intended target, in the 57th minute, while on the hour, both Hegering and Popp had shots blocked following a Marozsan corner. It was from yet another Marozsan corner - she had a mortgage on them in this match - that Germany finally broke the deadlock in the 66th minute. This particular delivery was cleared to the edge of the penalty area, where Gwinn latched onto the ball and thundered home a twenty yard drive through the legs of Yang. Even had Peng seen the shot as it was struck, there was no way this effort was going to be stopped by anything other than the net, and the jubilant teenager's joyous leap showed the world how much scoring the game's opening goal meant to her. China now had to chase an equaliser, which played into Germany's hands as they could strike on the counter-attack. Twice they threatened to do so in the next fifteen minutes, with Peng saving from both Daebritz and Gwinn as the Germans looked to make the game safe. As it turned out, they had already done enough, but they had to survive one scare of note seven minutes from time, Zhang's volley flashing over the crossbar after Schult had punched out a Wang cross to the edge of the penalty area. It was far from a classic encounter between these two old rivals, but it was one from which China should have taken something, given the chances they created. Their failure to do so was punished by Gwinn, whose fine strike earned Germany a winning start at France 2019, albeit a far from convincing one. Germany:     Schult; Hendrich, Hegering, Doorsoun; Gwinn, Marozsan, Daebritz, Leupolz (Magull, 63), Simon (Oberdorf, 46 (booked, 81)); Popp, Huth (Schueller, 85) China:          Peng; Han, Wu, Lin, S. Liu (booked, 50); Lou (Tan, 33), Zhang, Gu, Yao (Shuang Wang, 46 (booked, 71)); Yang (booked, 44) (Song, 69), Shanshan Wang (booked, 12) Referee:     Marie-Soleil Beaudoin (Canada)