Helsinki dream spurs on Pedersen

While Denmark will go into UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ with a host of young new talents coming through, at the heart of their lineup is a player with more experience in a national-team shirt than any of her compatriots.

Record
Captain Katrine Pedersen became the first player from Denmark to win 150 caps in last month's 1-0 friendly loss in England, more even than men's record-holder Peter Schmeichel who bowed out with 129. However, the 32-year-old is much more concerned with the 23 August fixture against Finland at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium that will open her seventh campaign in a major final tournament – having already appeared in three UEFA European Women's Championships and three FIFA Women's World Cups.

Helsinki hope
"It is nice to have achieved [150 caps]," Pedersen told uefa.com. "But I am thinking more about the opening game in Finland." Indeed, she already has an ideal scenario in her mind. "About 40,000 in the stands, and hopefully a win to Denmark. [Finland] are quite a hard team to play, well-organised defensively. They are big, strong players. "

Stability
Pedersen, who plays for Norwegian club Stabæk IF after a career that has also taken her to England and Sweden, has only once had the experience of progressing past the group stage of a European finals, reaching the last four in 2001. But this year Denmark have already beaten fellow finalists Norway, Iceland and Germany in finishing third at the strong Algarve Cup, and Pedersen identifies stability as they key. "I think we've had a long period where the same players have played," he said. "We've had a good two years in a row in the Algarve Cup, we won our qualifying group. It's a been a long road to where we are now and we've been moving up all the way."

Goals
In that qualifying pool Denmark finished above Ukraine, who form their second Group A opponents, followed by the Netherlands. Since then that stable squad has been bolstered by emerging young talents such as Nadia Nadim and Nadia Christiansen but Pedersen, whose side have a last friendly at home to Scotland on Wednesday, will be taking the finals set by step. "Our first goal is to win the group, that's hard enough," she said. "Then if we win the group we'll set ourselves a new goal."