Melis gives studious Netherlands top marks

Manon Melis told UEFA.com the fact the Netherlands "knew everything" about reigning champions Germany allowed the Dutch to make a positive start to UEFA Women's EURO 2013 Group B.

Roger Reijners' squad might even have had a surprise win had the FC Malmö forward taken a clear-cut second-half opportunity, but Melis shrugged off any regrets after the goalless draw in Vaxjo, adding: "We can be proud of ourselves."

Frustrated by a Dutch side which had done its homework, Germany's Dzsenifer Marozsán hoped Silvia Neid's squad would learn the lessons of their opening-game stumble.

Nadine Angerer, Germany captain
We've got a point and we said from the beginning that we were only focusing on Holland and this is still a point. The tournament moves on now and we shift our focus to Iceland to get three points from that game.

I think Holland played precisely how we expected them to play and we played a little below our best today. We played with a bit too much fear and because of that, we were a bit handicapped and were unable to play the strong football we've been playing in recent weeks. 

The result was only down to us and the fact that we were unable to get our game together. We didn't have the movement and we were unable to open up room for our team-mates. That is why we failed today.

Dzsenifer Marozsán, Germany forward
I'm certainly disappointed. Of course we wanted to start the tournament with a win and we didn't manage it. We've now got to put this game behind us, analyse it and just ensure that we don't repeat the errors and improve on the things that we didn't do so well in our next game.

We had a few problems up front. We combined well, but not right to the end. We've got to improve on that.

The Netherlands were very good, particularly defensively where they were always very compact and always threw themselves in the way of our shots. But I also think that we can do better than this and we will do better in our next game.

Daphne Koster, Netherlands captain
I'm happy, but this is one of three games. It's one point, not three, but I'm happy. For us, it was a good game. The defence was great and we kept possession well.

I'm not surprised. We have to believe and we have to trust in ourselves so I think we did a good job. When you play a game as we did tonight, I think our confidence can only get bigger and bigger.

The key was the defence of our team and then when we got the ball, I think we showed patience in our play.

Manon Melis, Netherlands forward
I think we can be proud of ourselves. The first half was a little hard, but we stayed really compact and we were waiting for our chances. In the second half, there was more space and we did a good job.

I got a great pass from Kirsten van de Ven and had a lot of time. I was waiting for the goalkeeper, and I wanted to shoot with my left foot, but I waited too long and then wanted to shoot with my right and the goalkeeper saved. It was bad for me but good from the goalkeeper.

We worked a lot on holding Germany. We prepared really well, we knew everything about the German team. We knew that if we stayed compact, we would get some chances and that happened in the second half especially.

There was a lot of space behind the back four. Perhaps we could have scored and would have had the three points, but I think we can be really happy with one.