Mjelde insists 'it's ours to win'

'Too tired to speak'
Mjelde was majestic as Norway edged past Germany in the last four, calming a back line struggling to cope with the holders' early attacking vim. The 18-year-old's one failure came with her spot-kick in the shoot-out but having shouldered so much of her side's defensive burden until then, her team-mates returned the favour by sending Norway through 4-2 on penalties. "It is hard to remember anything after the first period of extra time because I was playing off pure adrenaline," said Mjelde, who admitted she was "too tired to speak" after the game in Tours. "I always had a feeling this was the year we finally would beat Germany but we never imagined it would be quite so dramatic."

Group-stage loss
Next up for Mjelde and Norway is Italy, a side they had never lost to prior to their 1-0 group stage defeat when the Azzurrine's 'Maradona', Tatiana Bonetti, came off the bench to strike the only goal of the game deep into added time. "We thought we were the better team when we played them in the first game of this tournament and we have a great record against them at this level," said Mjelde, who has enjoyed three wins in four appearances against Italy at this level. "We can't wait. We need to relax both mentally and physically so we are ready for Italy but we know we are more than capable of beating them. We've beaten the defending champions and after coming so far we're not going to mess it up now. It's ours to win."