Sand Andersen shows pride

Sporting fingernails painted brightly in the colours of her country's flag, Denmark midfielder Camilla Sand Andersen exuded plenty of pride as she credited her team's intensity for reviving their Group A fortunes with Wednesday's 2-1 victory over Ukraine.

'More aggressive'
Kenneth Heiner-Møller's charges had lost their UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ opener 1-0 to Finland and were in danger of letting their tournament ambitions peter out following a goalless first half at Helsinki Football Stadium. Neither team seemed to possess enough of a cutting edge to pull ahead, but four minutes after the restart Sand Andersen raced on to a deft Nadia Nadim header and found the back of the net. "I think what turned the match was that we got more aggressive," said the 23-year-old. "We really played for the goal and it paid off. [At half-time] our coach said we just had to play a little faster, a little more precisely and to score our chances."

New formation
Ukraine later drew level through Daryna Apanaschenko, requiring Maiken Pape to hit an 87th-minute winner. Carlsberg Player of the Match Sand Andersen praised Heiner-Møller for the switch from 4-3-3 to 4-1-4-1 that presented the Danes with more openings than they had enjoyed against Finland. "To score we had to be more offensive and, really, that paid off," she explained. "You need to do that if you want to win sometimes. I think we have to vary things a bit and we did that today, just to get some movement in the middle. It worked."

'Very tight'
What also seemed to help was the shared sense of mission within the Danish camp. "A few of us girls have got the flag," said Sand Andersen, referring to her patriotically painted digits. "We're proud to be from Denmark. There is good friendship and a good team ethic here. We're very tight and if there is ever a problem we just have to look down and know what we're fighting for."

Netherlands encounter
Next up for the Fortuna Hjørring player and her colleagues are the Netherlands on Saturday, a match they must win to finish second in the section and be certain of advancing. "I saw them against Ukraine in the first game and they actually played a good game," said the No10. "They have good individuals up front and a very fast player in Manon Melis, so we'll have to focus. We mustn't lose our concentration for one minute and we'll have to be aggressive because they'll come at us fast."