Meinert hails 'deserved' victory

Germany coach Maren Meinert is savouring a title in her first full season in charge as her side defeated France to win the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship. Isabel Kerschowski scored early in each half before her twin sister Monique, who scored as a substitute in the semi-final win against Russia and started today, added the decisive third 15 minutes from time. Stéphane Pilard, who also led France to finish runners-up a year ago in Hungary, is coming to terms with another heartbreaking defeat but conceded the German victory was merited.

Maren Meinert, Germany coach
The mood is obviously buoyant, especially because for many of the players, it's the first title they have won. It's likely to be a short night! Sometimes the twins get into trouble on the pitch together, and I hope I have the chance to solve that in the future, but I'm not sure I can because they have lived together for so long. When we got to the dressing room at half-time I had the feeling that 1-0 was even more dangerous than 0-0 as I had to warn my players that they had to score a second time because otherwise we would end up getting an equaliser in the last minute. Our defensive play and positioning was very good, and I think we deserved to win, because I can't really recall France having one clear chance. [I started with Monique Kerschowski] because I wanted a faster player on the right-hand side. We did have Friederike Engel, who is good on the ball, and we needed that against Russia. But against France we needed more speed and the second half showed that was the right decision. I feel we were probably the best team in the tournament. When we were 1-0 up, we didn't want to start playing with the clock and resting on that result, we absolutely wanted to score the second goal to help ourselves. We had the better day, but France have a great team. We knew how good they were on the ball and it is always good to play them.

Stéphane Pilard, France coach
It's the second time in succession that we've lost a final, but we'll try and be back next year. I think Germany's victory was totally deserved, the best team won. A 3-0 defeat is a bit hard to swallow, but we gifted them two of the goals, and put ourselves in difficulty. I'm disappointed that we lost, but I'm less disappointed than last year, because of the clear nature of this result. We are telling the players that we stick together as a group. We've won matches as a team, and now we lose as a team. The second goal was the turning point, because at one down, you always have the hope of coming back into the match. We tried to keep going forward after the second goal, but it was impossible to come back against a team like Germany. They kept our striker Marie-Laure Delie quiet, and covered well on the flanks, we weren't able to develop any wide attacking play. We can't have too many regrets about the outcome.

Monique Kerschowski, Germany goalscorer
It's a great feeling, this is my biggest success in football so far. My goal was perhaps a little fortunate, but they all count. The spirit within the group is excellent, it's not just about the eleven players on the pitch, a whole squad has contributed to this win.