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Prinz the pride of Germany

Striker Birgit Prinz has been hailed by her coach after becoming Germany's all-time leading scorer with 84 goals.

By Pete Sanderson in Preston

Germany coach Tina Theune-Meyer hailed striker Birgit Prinz as "one of the most natural female strikers in the world" after the forward became her country's all-time leading goalscorer in the 4-0 win over Italy at UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2005™.

Extra time
Theune-Meyer, who was keen to focus on the performance of her team following the victory, could not resist praising the 27-year-old striker after her landmark 84th strike. "She really is something special - a world-class scorer and one of the most naturally gifted finishers around," the German coach told uefa.com. "She is strong, she is quick and she always seems to have that extra bit of time on the ball which makes her very hard to mark.

Team player
"She is also a great team player and someone who will always pick out the faults in her game rather than look to tell everybody what she has achieved," she added. "Having players like that around is crucial."

Modest mood
Prinz scored the first goal as the defending champions ran out easy winners to book their slot in the semi-finals of this year's tournament. Goals from Conny Pohlers, Stephanie Jones and Anja Mittag completed a 4-0 success but the 1. FFC Frankfurt forward was in typically modest mood following the win.

Last four
"I never really thought about it," Prinz told uefa.com."I am not here for personal achievements, more to win the tournament with my team. I thought I took the goal well but was actually quite disappointed with my overall performance. I thought I gave the ball away too much but it was hard having not played for two weeks. The important thing is Germany won and we are on our way to the last four of the tournament."

Lady luck
Prinz added that she sensed her side were finally showing the form to go on and defend their title successfully. "We have finally started to click," she said. "We certainly have the belief to win this tournament - I guess to be true winners you have to but we have a lot to do to complete the success so we must focus and hope we get that extra bit of luck."

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