Powell praise for prodigy

In a thrilling UEFA European Women's Championship Group A opener at the City of Manchester Stadium, Finland wiped out a 2-0 half-time deficit with goals from Anna-Kaisa Rantanen and, in the 89th-minute, Laura Kalmari. But an added-time strike from Karen Carney, which came after an own goal from Finland captain Sanna Valkonen and Amanda Barr's first-half header, sealed all three points for England. uefa.com rounds up the reaction from the two coaches.

Hope Powell, England manager
Obviously I'm very pleased with the three points as well as the way we came back. I wasn't best pleased when their second goal went in, it was very sloppy defending and I hope I wasn't caught on camera. But we showed resilience and I'm overjoyed with the winner, if not with the performance. I put that down to a lot of nerves, as it was very cagey. I think we have more to come. I can take heart from the way we came back as in tournament football the result is everything. Karen was chuffed to bits, as you could probably see with the celebration. You could clearly see from the way she addressed the ball that she had picked her spot from the bench that it was going in. She's still a young kid at 17 but is a real prospect. Kelly Smith's contribution was very pleasing. You could see that at times she was getting frustrated but I put that down to nerves – there were lots of fans and a great atmosphere. Sometimes you need a bit of luck and we rarely get it. We're top of the group and the nice thing is we didn't play well but won the game. I'd like to thank the fans – nearly 30,000 of them – although at times it was hard to communicate with the players. But I can't complain about that!

Michael Käld, Finland manager
What can I say? We played a great second half after being 2-0 down. For them to score just two minutes from the end, well. However, this is the first game at the start of a great tournament. We were nervous at the start, even though we had spoken before the game about what could happen. There were a lot of spectators and out on the pitch we could feel the atmosphere. We made some big mistakes during the first half, enabling England to score some soft goals. I am very proud of the team for the work they put in. People back in Finland will also be very proud of the team. At half-time I told the players to stay cool and cut out the silly mistakes. We spoke about pressurising them more, trying to play higher up the pitch and getting behind their defensive line. Their two defensive midfielders were not too fast and looked a bit tired and we felt if we pressed them they would make mistakes from which we could score. This team is still mentally strong and has a good spirit.