Grishin revels in Russian feat
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Article summary
Russia coach Valentin Grishin is still coming to terms with his side's semi-final victory against Germany.
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By Kevin Ashby in Zalaegerszeg
Germany prevented Russia reaching the final of the 2004 UEFA European Women’s Under-19 Championship but could not repeat the feat tonight as Elena Danilova fired her side into Sunday’s showpiece against France with another brilliant hat-trick. The Russia No9 has now scored eight goals in four games in Hungary and will be striving to add to that tally when her side return to the ZTE stadium in three days’ time. uefa.com gauges the reaction from the two coaches.
Valentin Grishin, Russia
I haven’t come to my senses yet but hopefully I will soon. We have a lot of respect for Germany but in this game we were stronger and deserved to win. I was really pleased with our possession of the ball and our midfield and defensive lines did exactly what they were asked. In attack, of course, our leading player Danilova took her chances really well. It’s great to qualify for the final primarily because it will help to develop women’s football in Russia, get more girls interested and maybe stimulate the Russian Football Union into doing more.
Maren Meinert, Germany
It was a tough game for us. I expected a tough game but the players didn’t seem to know what the semi-final of a European Championship is all about. We didn’t play very well, and the second thing we forgot to do was fight. With my team now it’s a question of physical fitness - we don’t have it. We know over one game that anything can happen and if a team have a No9 like Danilova then it will always be tough for our defence.
Russia played very well, used their physical power and spread the ball wide effectively. Both their forwards were speedy and it’s OK to lose a game to a team like that, it’s a question of why did we lose it for me. It’s such a disappointment because we have a team which should reach the final and we were very optimistic we could do that. As I said, you have to fight to win a trophy here and we didn’t do that. It’s very important for the players that they stay together otherwise their time at this level is over, and besides we have lots of talent in this team.
