Low countries could scale peaks

Before the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship, the Netherlands and Belgium were marked out as outsiders, and indeed the neighbours finished bottom of their respective groups with one point and two goals between them. But the fact these nations were here, and secured some useful results, can give both reasons for optimism.

Dutch bid
Of the two, the Netherlands are the more established force in European women's football. They previously qualified for these finals in 2003, the senior team won away in France in a 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifier and the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB), who are trying out French-style football schools for girls, mounted a strong bid to stage UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™, only beaten to the honour by Finland last week.

Reference point
Netherlands U19 coach Ed Engelkes, who also assists Vera Pauw with the senior side and in her wide-ranging duties promoting the female game at home, saw his team beaten 2-0 by Switzerland on the opening day to his disappointment, yet was then pleased with their performance two days later in restricting France to one goal. They suffered a third defeat on Sunday as holders Russia - and Elena Danilova - hit top form in a 5-1 victory, but Engelkes is satisfied with the experience. "It is important for us that we have been here because the players now have a reference, a reference to what level these kind of matches are played," he said.

Swiss example
Engelkes added: "We have a lot of young players and they must take the experience from this with them and hopefully next year we can make it to the final round again. Then we hope we can make a step up, as we have seen with the Swiss, who are in the final round for the fourth time. Every time the goal is to get better the following year."

Belgian first
Just as former international Pauw is playing a big role in transforming Dutch women's football, so ex-Belgium captain Anna Noë is seeking to take her country forward. Coach of the senior squad, she also runs the U19s and by qualifying for Switzerland they became the first Belgian side to appear in any female European finals. Their showing was admirable. They led Denmark 1-0 in their opener and, had they not been reduced to ten players, may well have avoided a 2-1 reverse. But a point was not long in coming as they held Sweden 0-0, and only Germany truly outclassed them with a 4-0 win.

Physical disadvantage
Noë said: "I am very proud of my team. I got a very nice compliment from the German coach who said that our team have shown they can play football, that we did not defend with ten players to hold the result. However, we were weaker from a physical point of view. We only train 90 minutes twice per week, so three games at such a level in just one week are too much for my team. Even motivation is not enough to cope with the pressure."

U17 goal
Adding that she has far fewer players than the likes of Germany from whom to pick her squad, Noë concluded: "This has certainly been a good experience for us, but we have to take the lessons from this. We are currently working with the U15 and U17 selections to build up a strong team for the future. With the [UEFA European Women's] U17 Championship starting in two years, this will be an additional opportunity for the young players. They can measure themselves against stronger teams from abroad."

Additional reporting by Adrian Harte & Massimo Gonnella