Quereda enjoys Spanish surprise

By Kevin Ashby in Vantaa

The Spain coach was magnanimous in victory, and the Germany coach gracious in defeat after the Iberians defied the odds to defeat Germany 2-1 and win the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship for the first time.

Captain marvel
Spain captain Iraia scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the 52nd minute, a delightful curling free-kick from a narrow angle 25 metres from goal. Germany captain Annike Krahn had taken her tally to four in the tournament with almost the final touch of the first half, cancelling out Jade's opener. Spain's first European crown comes four years after they lost their only other final appearance to Germany and six days after they were beaten 7-0 by the same opponents.

Thailand trip
Both teams have qualified for the FIFA Under-19 Championship, to be played in Thailand in November, while Germany No9 Anja Mittag finished as the leading scorer in Finland with six. uefa.com speaks to the protagonists.

Spain coach Ignacio Quereda
It was an even game and either side could have won. Germany's excellent, perfect team just didn't quite do it today. We knew we couldn't celebrate until the final whistle, even in the 94th minute Germany were pushing hard. We were under pressure like Germany, we played against a great side and we knew it would be anything but easy.

Everybody knows that Germany is the top football country in Europe, maybe even the world. Hopefully this victory will bring even more licensed players to women's football in Spain. At the World Championship we will enjoy a new experience, learn some new football and develop the team.

Spain captain Iraia
It's incredible. I didn't expect the dream to come true. Germany are very strong and obviously beat us 7-0 a few days ago, but today we played very well and won. It's not normal for me to score with the inside of my right foot from a free-kick but I just kicked it very hard and I think the goalkeeper was blinded the sun. We came here to qualify for Thailand and now we will go there as European champions. It's even more special for me as this is my last year in this age group.

Germany coach Silvia Neid
Congratulations to the Spanish coach, he got his team ready for this match. The Spanish players always kept close to mine so we couldn't move on the field. As a consequence we didn't get any chances so we couldn't get into the game. They deserved to win; we were missing the fire and the heart to really fight to win the game. Spain today were an excellent example of having the heart to win a match.

The players knew that this was going to be very different, playing a different team than in the group. The problem was perhaps that the players may have been thinking 'We'll score sometime', and after it didn't happen we realised that too late and weren't able to grind out a goal.

The aim is to come back strong next year and we have a lot of young players here who were born in 1986 so a lot of them will be here next season. They will learn a lot from losing this game and that will help them develop. First we have to qualify for the final tournament as we could meet Sweden, Denmark or France so that will be difficult. However, if we qualify we will
go far in the tournament.

Germany striker Anja Mittag
It would be more satisfying to have won the European championship as well as the top scorer. We played a really bad game, there was no power to our play and Spain deserved to win. My back-heeled goal against Switzerland was my favourite. We were a very good team until the final, consistently playing well. Now we will look forward to the World Championship.