Käld hails Finnish heroes

By Kevin Ashby in Preston

The first semi-final between the tournament favourites Germany and outsiders Finland went to form with the holders winning 4-1 to progress to their fourth successive UEFA European Women's Championship final. Inka Grings (2), Conny Pohlers and Birgit Prinz were on target for a German side who conceded their first goal of the tournament when Minna Mustonen converted a corner. Germany will now battle either Norway or Sweden for silverware, while Finland can expect a heroes' welcome when they land in Helsinki on Friday such has been their progress in England. uefa.com hears from the coaches.

Tina Theune-Meyer, Germany coach
I was happy with our performance for the first 15 minutes as we scored three goals. After that we didn't calm down and find our game. We perhaps could have played a little bit more directly but we finally started playing well after scoring our fourth. I was unhappy that we conceded a goal as I wanted us to go the whole tournament without letting one in. Those things happen. Finland really tried their best to make it to the final and the fact that they were so attacking probably helped us a little but. They have played a great tournament. We all want to win the gold medal and we have to improve on this performance in the final. Silvia Neid says she wants to play Sweden in the final but I don't care. Playing Norway would also be a classic game because we met them in the final of this competition in 1989 and the 1995 [FIFA Women's] World Cup. I think we can play better and it will be an advantage for us having an extra day off.

Michael Käld, Finland coach
I am proud of the way we fought back. It was a very bad start, if you let Germany score the first goal they're very good and difficult to stop. The first one came after only two or three minutes - we had a corner and five seconds later the ball is in our goal. At 3-0 the game is over. The pleasing thing was for the last hour the game was 1-1. I'm very proud of my team, but we've improved during the tournament and it's been a great success. We have to learn from these games. It's our first time in a championship like this and we have reached the semi-finals - I can't be disappointed.