LADIES EURO HEARTBREAK

Thursday 10 September 2009, 19:15
by Antonia De Feo

England Women have lost out on European silverware after suffering a 6-2 defeat to Germany in final of the European Championships in Finland.

Everton's Fara Williams, Rachel Brown, Jill Scott and Emily Westwood all featured in the final which took place at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki.

The Three Lions found themselves trailing 2-1 at the interval and overcoming the number one side in Europe proved too big a challenge for Hope Powell's team in the Finnish capital.

England started strongly and Williams was handed an opportunity to execute one of her trademark free-kicks just seven minutes into the clash, yet the Blues skipper fired narrowly past the far post.

However, it was Germany who broke the deadlock as Birgit Prinz's well-placed tap on 20 minutes beat Brown to see the ball neatly into the corner after 20 minutes.

England faced an uphill struggle from that point as their opponents doubled their lead just three minutes later.

A spectacular 41-yard strike from Melanie Behringer caught Brown off her line, and although the keeper managed to get her finger tips to the strike, Behringer's phenomenal effort hit the top corner with brute force to put the German's two-up.

England were handed a lifeline from the efforts of Kelly Smith just seconds later. Her excellent run, which took the ball deep to the goalline to salvage a last-second pass across goal to Karen Carney who slotted into the empty net.

Jill Scott had the Lions' best chance for an equaliser before the interval as the Everton midfielder - who scored England's winner in the semi-final against Finland - headed hard at goal but her effort took a hefty deflection on the line off Germany's defence.

German youngster Kim Kulig got her name on the score sheet early in the second period - a congested goal mouth meant England were unable to clear and Kulig smashed it over the England defence to increase their advantage once again on 49 minutes.

Yet Carney's assistant Smith pulled one back ten minutes later, the midfielder found herself with acres of space to execute a perfect cross-goal finish to give her side a glimpse of hope.

But the German's forceful attack proved too much and Inka Grings recored her fifth of goal of the tournament with a header straight over Brown after 62 minutes.

Grings then secured her sixth goal in Finland after 73 minutes - her combined effort with Prinz beat the defensive efforts of Faye White and Eni Aluko to increase their lead once more.

Grings then returned the favour to her team mate as her accurate pass trough on goal just moments later allowed Prinz to fire home past a static Brown to make it six for the Germans to secure their fifth consecutive European Championship victory.

After picking up their runners-up medals, Brown admitted the German's constant threat on goal gave them a deserved victory.

"They were very clinical when they got the opportunity, and they were the better team tonight," said the Everton keeper.

"It was just simple, basic errors and they made the most of our poor play. But all credit to them - they scored six goals at the end of the day and they were the better team."