Not going into the whole comparing-it-to-mens-football, because it's at such a different stage of development its not worth it, especially at England's level, but for what it was I thought it was a pretty good game that England's women's team won today against Finland.

Was very sceptical about the opening game being England vs Finland-- arguably the weakest game of the tournemant, but thought the quality was good, there was some great skill shown and it wasn't a bad opening game. Although the goals were mostly scrappy, the winner was a great strike, and Ratanans goal wasn't a bad strike either.

Thought Barr played well, Yankey played well although she appeared to have the nerves at first, Carney (only 17?!!) was great and Kelly Smith was a class above, she really looked comfortable on the ball. You could see that she had the experance of playing in a stronger game. Enna Aluko looked very bright when she came on as well -- another very young player to be competing at this level. After being slightly dissapointed at the broken-play of the Charlton vs Everton FA cup game, was slightly worried about how this game would come accross, but this was a huge step up and the girls played some really nice football. Looking forward to the next game, and it will be interesting if the team loses the nervy starts and competes with a bigger team. It wasn't the best that side could play but they certainly showed moments of class.

Credit to the Finish side as well -- played some good football, and being the first Finish senior side to qualify for finals, I believe, it's an achievement. The player that impressed me most on their side was actually the goalkeeper -- for a notoriously weaker area of women's football, it was great to see her taking catches competantly and making some fine saves especially those two from Aluko -- very good saves.

29,000 odd crowd is also great for the game! Wonder if the crowd will increase should England progress further..? Top of their group, it's not looking bad at all, though there's two tougher sides left to play...

Congrats England on a good game, and hope you lot progress further in the competition!

Did I just say that?!?!?!

Watched two games today Robbie and I must say the England game looked more exciting...I was impressed with the back heel pass from the LB position..There was a certain amount of skill on display IMO...

Considering the level of English domestic leagues at the moment, and that the England team havent played a competitive game in two seasons, I thought the skill displayed was pretty impressive, especialy from the individuals I mentioned... The Birmingham players on the team (which is quite a few..!) apparently are only able to train once a week for their club? Although critical of Birminghams set-up in that case, although I'm sure theres reasons for it otherwise they would train more, the skill that can be produced and maintained by the Birmingham players through that is quite remarkable.

The back-heel passage was especially good, as was the lead-up to the 3rd goal...

England 3-2 Finland

Karen Carney's cool injury-time chip gave England a dramatic win in their opening Euro 2005 match.

An own goal from Sanna Valkonen was followed by Amanda Barr's header to put the hosts 2-0 up at the interval.

But Finland, who had already hit the bar, pulled one back through Anna-Kaisa Rantanen and drew level in the last minute as Laura Kalmari tapped in.

Yet there was time for the 17-year-old Carney to delight a crowd of 29,029 at the City of Manchester Stadium.

England, playing the only team in the competition ranked below them, were desperate to impress but struggled to impose themselves early on in front of a record attendance for a Women's European Championship match.

The Finns looked slick in possession but were unable to find a breakthrough and fell behind to a scrappy goal.

Eighteen minutes were on the clock when goalkeeper Satu Kunnas made a mess of Carney's low free-kick. Defender Valkonen got the last touch before the ball crossed the line but there was little she could do about it.


Finland could have levelled on 25 minutes when Anne Makinen's looping header beat keeper Jo Fletcher but came back off the bar.

England doubled their lead when Kelly Smith's fierce drive hit the woodwork and bounced kindly for Barr to head over Kunnas towards the goal.

The Finnish keeper's frantic efforts to clear were in vain as Hungarian referee Gyongyi Gaal ruled the ball had crossed the line after consulting her assistant.

But Rantanen shook England's nerves as she side-footed home from the edge of the box.

And when Kalmari tapped in on 89 minutes it looked as though the Finns had salvaged a point - only for Carney to have the final say.



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England head coach Hope Powell:
"We showed resilience and got the winner in the last minute of play.

"I'm overjoyed with that, perhaps not overjoyed with the performance.

"We'll perhaps put that down to nerves because we were very cagey. It proves we've got more to come. And I would like to thank the crowd - fantastic."

Finland coach Michael Kald:
"What can I say? We did a great second half and we did some good work. We just have to learn from it.

"I'm very proud of the team and I think people back home in Finland are very proud of the Finnish team."

Fara Williams looked great as ever

Went to see Sweden v Denmark in Blackpool yesterday with my wife....it was good game to watch....and saw the highlight of England v Finland last night, it was very impressive game, so well done England and you did proud to everyone around of England, well done again!!

What was the attendance of Sweden vs Denamrk, LG? Are they all getting good crowds or is it just the England games? haven't heard...

Hard to leave out Barr especially as she worked so hard for the team, but Aluko and Smith might be a better strike partenership... Aluko could have scored twice in the short time she was on, and although doesn't work like Barr does, she might be able to score 'cleaner' goals -- the two goals England scored yesterday, Barrs and the OG, were pretty lucky, and that luck might not be there agianst a stronger side.