Dream finish for delighted Dutch

A last-minute strike from Jeffrey Sarpong took the Netherlands into the UEFA European Under-17 Championship final tournament at the expense of Germany by the narrowest of margins.

Three-way tie
With the score at 2-2, the Elite round Group 7 hosts, who won both their opening games against the Czech Republic and Latvia, were heading for Italy in early May. But Sarpong had other ideas, and although the Czechs defeated Latvia today to join these two teams on six points, the Dutch and Germany had a better three-way head-to-head record with the Czechs - and the Netherlands' further tie-break with Germany was settled by this result.

Goal apiece
The Netherlands started the better and went ahead on seven minutes through Niels Vorthoren. But only nine minutes later, Germany hit back with a spectacular shot from Sergej Evljuskin after a solo run from the halfway line.

Germany ahead
Daniel Halfar, who had scored a hat-trick in Germany's 4-0 victory against Latvia, had another chance when his side won a 33rd-minute penalty, but missed the spot-kick. However, Germany went ahead 16 minutes into the second half thanks to a Sebastian Tyrala free-kick, and it seemed they had done enough.

Dramatic end
Four minutes from time, though, Anita Vurnon levelled the scores and then Sarpong pounced to send the Netherlands into their first U17 finals for three years. The draw is in Pisa on 8 April, and the competition runs from 3-14 May.

'Extremely disappointed'
Germany coach Jörg Daniel said: "We are extremely disappointed, which is understandable after such a loss. Normally, the match would have been won when we went 2-1 up. But we are not the first team to experience this situation."