Germany 4 Finland 1: Finnish women beaten by World No.1 at European Championships

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The Finnish women's campaign at the UEFA European Championships in England came to an abrupt end on Wednesday evening, as a powerful German side exposed the difference in that can exist even in the semi-finals of a big tournament.
      The match was over as a serious contest within 12 minutes, as the Germans went 3-0 up through goals from Inka Grings (3 min.), Conny Pohlers (8 min.), and Grings again after 12 minutes.
      Though the Finns had undoubtedly gone into this match against the reigning World and European champions as underdogs, it was still a shock to see how quickly they folded in the opening exchanges.
      Nervousness at the big occasion probably played a part, but in any event the three goals were all the product of midfield or defensive errors, and the Germans are such a routined side that they do not let chances like that go begging. Nor are the Finns yet in the Liverpool class that they can perform Lazarus-like miracles and recover from such a disastrous start.
      However, they did dent the German pride and armour after only 15 minutes, when Minna Mustonen hustled the ball in from the goal-line after a corner from Anna-Kaisa Rantanen . It was the first goal conceded by the Germans in the tournament so far. During their qualifying campaign for EURO 2005, the World No.1s had scored a crushing 50 goals and only conceded two, so Mustonen joins an exclusive club.
     
Thereafter the goals dried up until the 62nd minute, when Birgit Prinz - who had previously had a quiet game despite her rating as "World's best woman footballer"- added a fourth after a neat interception on the right. She breezed into the penalty area with two Finnish defenders struggling to keep up, and despatched the ball past goalkeeper Satu Kunnas.
      Kunnas was again in good form after the shock of the opening minutes, and was called upon to produce a number of good stops, although as the game wore on the German accuracy on goal became rather wayward.
      The Finns had a couple of chances to make the scoreline more respectable, but Laura Kalmari and others found goalkeeper Silke Rottenberg in their way each time they managed to get past the imposing presence of central defender Steffi Jones.
     
So the first appearance by a Finnish team, male or female, in the finals of a major international tournament ran out of steam. But it was not exactly an ignominious departure: finishing joint third in the European Championships surpassed even the wildest dreams nurtured before the competition. The ten days of football in England will hopefully have brought the women's game on in this country by leaps and bounds. The World Cup qualifiers that get under way in the autumn will provide some indication of this.
      It is perhaps worth remembering that there are just 18,000 women and girls playing football in Finland, while in Germany the numbers are in excess of 855,000.
      All credit to the team and to their coach Michael Käld for delivering one of the most pleasant sporting upsets of the year so far.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hats off, gentlemen! Finland's women footballers make history at EURO 2005 (13.6.2005)

Links:
  UEFA EURO 2005

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