Devastated Stoney rues scoreline

A disappointed Casey Stoney felt the 6-2 scoreline Germany inflicted upon England in the UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ final in Helsinki put a "really unfair reflection on our performance".

Second-half goals
The left-back was part of an England rearguard which looked increasingly vulnerable in the second half as Hope Powell's side sought to level the game having reduced their arrears to 2-1 and then, in early stages of the second half, to a 3-2 after the holders had twice established a two-goal lead. However, the more the game opened up, so did England's defence, allowing Germany's front pairing of Inka Grings and Birgit Prinz to take full advantage with three goals between them in the closing 28 minutes.

'Clinical' finishing
"I'm sad, devastated, disappointed and, if I'm honest, it wasn't a 6-2 game, 6-2 puts a really unfair reflection on our performance," the Chelsea LFC player-manager told uefa.com. "They were so clinical in front of goal and we weren't, they punished us every time they countered. I'm really upset and disappointed because we really thought we could give them a game tonight. At 2-1 and 3-2 we still thought we were in the game but they got the chances and took them."

Attacking threat
England more than played their part in an enthralling final which threatened to lurch one way then the other in the opening 60 minutes. It was during this spell that Stoney – who was sent off during the 2-1 loss to Italy on Matchday 1 – believes England "outplayed" the seven-time winners, whose defence, for the first time in the tournament, was being given a thorough examination by goalscorers Kelly Smith and Karen Carney.

'Control of the game'
"They're the world and European champions for a reason, they're a great side and we have to respect that," added Stoney. "We did really well to come back. We showed a lot of heart and desire and, at times if I'm honest, we outplayed them out there. We had control of the game and they scored quite a few goals against the run of play and I think that's what killed us in the end."

'Hard tournament'
Four days earlier Powell's charges were taken to extra time in the semi-final by the Netherlands, an experience which Stoney certainly thinks contributed to their second-half demise. "We've had a hard tournament, been to extra time and played with ten players so we've faced a lot of adversity," she said. "They're a great side, their forwards are tremendous and very difficult to play against. I thought our back line did well at times, although I think there's time when we'll need to look at ourselves and say we could have done a little bit better. We gave it everything we could and on the night it just wasn't good enough."