Vilda hails Spain's hard work

Spain coach Ángel Vilda said their progress to the UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship final with a 2-0 defeat of Norway was "the reward for 18 months' work" and warned goalscorers Amanda Sampedro and Esther González can do "even more damage". His team will play for the trophy on Thursday when Tarjei Smågesjø's Norway compete for third place and the coach praised Spain's passing game.

Ángel Vilda, Spain coach
We are very happy. It's the reward for 18 months' work, especially as we knew that our opponents were well-organised and a very strong team physically. Our two best goalscorers managed to score and they can do even more damage. We knew our opponents but we believed we would get the best result if we played our own way. I want to credit all our girls, all of them played superbly today. We know some things about France and Germany but now we will watch their game and get to know them better.

Tarjei Smågesjø, Norway coach
Today we could not score. Our big disappointment today is the seven great opportunities we had and did not take but of course we would like to congratulate Spain for making the final. We expected good opposition. They were like we thought they would be. I think their passing was a big element. We could not get a sniff of the ball. Our girls were influenced by the atmosphere and didn't make good choices with the ball. All that was unusual for us. It is only half of the championship today so we have the rest left and we are looking forward to the third-place play-off.