Germany 3 - 1 Norway
Germany players enjoy showing off the European Championship trophy after beating Norway in the final. Photograph: Lars Baron/Getty.
Germany retained their European crown with a 3-1 win over Norway in front of more than 21,000 people at Ewood Park today.
Norway wouldn't be beaten without a fight, but Germany looked in control of this game from the outset and even in the face of pressure from their opponents, looked capable of turning things up a gear if need be.
Having won the world cup in 2003 and now with the last two European championship trophies nestling in their cabinet, teams in Europe and beyond have a huge task ahead of them if Germany are to be caught.
Captain Birgit Prinz, who, as the world's most feted female footballer, had made nothing like the impact on this tournament that she might have done without a thigh injury coming into the competition, looked much more like her usual self.
She put the game beyond Norway just after the hour, a stinging drive taking a cruel deflection off Norwegian captain Ane Stangeland and whipping past a committed Bente Nordby in goal. And she might have added a second on 80 minutes, bursting into the penalty area to force a stretching save from Nordby.
If Norway could have made something of a couple of chances shortly before Prinz's third goal of the tournament, things might have been different; Lise Klaveness drew a one-handed save from Silke Rottenberg on 49 minutes and worried her again three minutes later when the keeper lost possession and found herself out of position with Solveig Gulbrandsen bearing down on goal.
She slipped as shot, however, and the ball sailed comfortably high over the bar. Dagny Mellgren will also be dreaming that her stoppage time header had managed to avoid the swinging palm of Rottenberg.
Germany had laid the foundations for this win in a frantic opening spell; Anja Mittag making sure Inka Grings' shot found the net after a corner had bobbled Grings' way on 21 minutes and Renate Lingor hooking over the advancing Nordby after slipping through the Norwegian defence two minutes later.
Both teams had been chasing the all-important first goal, Norway's Stine Frantzen and Klaveness almost putting them in front with just two minutes on the clock, but Germany dominated a lot of the play.
Prinz stung Nordby's palms with a well-struck volley and just moments after Mittag had given them the lead, the captain strode into the penalty area and laid it back for Mittag. Norway, defending in numbers, got enough bodies in the way to delay Germany's second for another minute.
With characteristic determination the Norwegians refused to be beaten so early, Gulbrandsen peppering Rottenberg's goal with shots from range, though without really troubling the keeper until moments before half-time, when a nudge around the post was required.
But with 40 minutes gone Frantzen played in Mellgren with a perfectly weighted pass into the area, and she had no hesitation in slotting the ball under Rottenberg to keep Norway in touching distance of the world champions.
And Frantzen should have put them level two minutes later, a low drive outdoing Rottenberg but disallowed for offside. Two Norway players were offside – one on the floor and another on the other side of the pitch – but Frantzen was not. Norway can only wonder whether the goal would have changed this game – with the strength of Germany, the answer is, probably not.
Germany: Rottenberg, Jones, Grings (Smisek, 68), Prinz, Lingor, Mittag (Wimbersky, 57), Minnert, Carlson (Gunther, 80), Pohlers, Hingst, Garefrekes.
Norway: Nordby, Stangeland, Folstad, Stensland, Christensen, Ronning (Knutsen, 83), Gulbrandsen, Mellgren, Paulsen, Frantzen (Herlovsen, 59), Klaveness (Blystad-Bjerke, 86).
