Käld's strategy pays dividends for hosts

After marking his 100th game as Finland coach by leading the UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ hosts to victory against Denmark in their Group A opener, Michael Käld revealed that the winner, a crossed Maija Saari free-kick that flew straight in, was something they had practised. Both Denmark coach Kenneth Heiner-Møller and captain Cathrine Paaske Sørensen bemoaned not taking advantage of their good start and allowing Finland too many chances.

Michael Käld, Finland coach
There are no lucky goals! We had a lot of training camps, did a lot of training, and set-pieces were a big part of them − corners, free-kicks. That was a goal we had talked about; put it hard straight towards goal and our player can score a goal, a Danish player can score or the ball can go straight in as it did today.

We didn't show Denmark too much respect. They are a good team with very good players but if you stay in your own half all the time the pressure will grow and grow. We played especially well in the second half. We tried to make some small changes at half-time, the first one being that we should retain possession better. In the first half we had one or two passes then Denmark got the ball. In the second half we played as we should before Denmark put us under strong pressure at the end. We kept cool heads, though, and the goalkeeper [Tinja-Riikka Korpela, the Carlsberg Player of the Match] did as I said before the match. It's easy to be a goalkeeper; take the ball and give it to another player. [The crowd] were all fantastic and, of course, we talked yesterday about the pressure they can exert on a team. It was so fantastic, you could see at the start of the game we were bit nervous but the crowd gave us the energy to play for 93 minutes. I thank the crowd, I hope we will see them again on Wednesday against Holland, which is another tough game, and we need their support.

Tinja-Riikka Korpela, Finland goalkeeper
The crowd was just wonderful. You can't play badly in front of that sort of crowd. I expected to make more saves against Denmark but there was just two or three.

Kenneth Heiner-Møller, Denmark coach
I think that we had a bit of a problem in handling the pressure Finland put on our defence. We did not play quick enough; when we do play quick enough we have to keep the ball a little bit more. We had our opportunities in the first half but when you don't score at this level, you don't get three points. We have to congratulate Finland. I think we are disappointed − we have to be. Not only with the match but also with ourselves because we know we can do better. We have done so in recent years so it is disappointing not do well in the first match. That said, we can take something into the next match. We made some chances but we did not take them well at all. I am disappointed.

Cathrine Paaske Sørensen, Denmark captain
It was a tough game for us today. We didn't play very well, Finland did very well. We played too slowly. In the first half it was OK but when Finland scored in the second half it wasn't good enough. I don't know what happened. We talked before the game about how Finland were very good at free-kicks and corners. It was not good enough that it went through the penalty area. After Finland scored of course they were buoyed and got the crowd behind them and we became nervous. We also had to take our chances, we had two we should have taken. It's a good thing we have two more games to make it better.