Coaches consider lessons from Larnaca

There were plenty of lessons for all the coaches after UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ finalists England, France, the Netherlands and Russia took part in the Cyprus Women's Cup over the last week. England emerged victorious, the first piece of silverware in Hope Powell's eleven-year reign, and she told uefa.com that her side took an important step ahead of the European finals in Finland from 23 August until 10 September.

England (winners)
Results: South Africa 6-0, France 2-2, Scotland 3-0, Canada 3-1

Hope Powell, England manager
We did OK. Obviously it's great to play in the final and experience the whole occasion that goes with it, and more importantly win it. We played some decent football throughout the tournament and we met a lot of other teams here. It's all part of the preparations for the European Championship. We still have a bit of work to do. Hopefully we can move on from this, keep developing and it will set us in good stead for the summer tournament.

France (third)
Results: Scotland 2-0, England 2-2, South Africa 3-2, New Zealand 1-1 (6-5 pens)

Bruno Bini, France coach
This tournament gave us the opportunity to follow up our preparations by testing several young players including Eugénie [Le Sommer, now the scorer of two goals in five caps] who is knocking on the door of the squad.

Netherlands (fifth)
Results: Russia 2-1, Canada 1-2, New Zealand 0-2, South Africa 5-0

Vera Pauw, Netherlands coach
We have taken an important step. We learned to play the ball around until we find an opening which can take us a long way in an attacking sense. We also showed we have faith in each other. The tournament has been useful and taught us things. We are on the right track. We have to learn to play our own game at a higher level, under pressure. Furthermore, everyone got playing time, so we had had a lot of debutantes and that offers potential for the future.

Russia (eighth)
Results: Netherlands 1-2, New Zealand 4-2, Canada 0-2, Scotland 1-2

Igor Shalimov, Russia coach
In general I'm not satisfied with the outcome but we picked up some useful information, a great deal in fact. It's clear we did not have time to prepare for the tournament and besides we were without seven Zvezda-2005 players, who are preparing for important UEFA Women's Cup matches. As for the game [against Scotland], that was a definite step forward. In fact, we never gave it away. Our only failure was the second half against Canada.

For a full list of all 12 finalists' warm-up schedule click here.