Kaurin laments 'crazy' twist

Norway forward Leni Larsen Kaurin could only curse her team's fortunes after the 2005 runners-up opened their UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ campaign with a 4-0 loss to holders Germany.

Late goals
The scoreline looks anything but close on paper, yet only one goal separated the two sides as the match entered the 90th minute, and Norway came tantalisingly close to pulling level before Silvia Neid's side sealed the outcome with a stunning late burst. Making just her second appearance for her country, Cecilie Pedersen failed to beat Nadine Angerer when sent clear with time ticking down – and almost immediately afterwards Fatmire Bajramaj added the first of her two late goals, with fellow substitute Anja Mittag hitting the other via a substantial deflection.

'It's crazy'
"The last four minutes were not good," said Kaurin. "We really wanted to equalise and had a big chance to do it. It's crazy that things could have changed so much: after we had our big chance we end up going home with four goals against us." Brought off the bench in the 58th minute to turn the game around, the 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam striker was nonetheless pleased to be facing some of her club-mates in the international arena, with Mittag, Bajramaj and Bianca Schmidt all fellow representatives of last season's German champions. "It's special to play against my team-mates and, of course, a lot of other colleagues from Germany," she said.

Tough tackling
The 28-year-old now hopes to be granted a starting berth as Bjarne Berntsen's team attempt to put their first points on the Group B board against Iceland on Thursday. "I wanted to play from the start and I hope I showed some good things," said Kaurin. "Maybe I can start against Iceland. When you lose your first game in a tournament, you know that you have to win the next. It's going to be tough, but we know we can beat every team and everything is really close at international level. So we just have to keep working and we have to be much tougher in our tackling against Iceland because they are a strong team."

Sweden precedent
Those sentiments were shared by goalkeeper Ingrid Hjelmseth, whose impressive string of saves kept Norway in the match until the final moments. "I think Germany were very good and deserved to win but we will come back in our next games," she said, before recalling her team's recent 1-0 friendly victory over Sweden, the only time Thomas Dennerby's side have tasted defeat this year. "Against Iceland, we'll have to do what we did against Sweden. Iceland and France are not as strong as Germany."