France indebted to Delie

France made it two wins out of two at the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship with a narrow victory against the Netherlands at the Bergholz stadium in Wil. Marie-Laure Delie's strike five minutes before half-time took her personal tally to three for the tournament and condemned the Dutch to a second straight defeat.

Excellent saves
In stormy conditions it was France who increased a pedestrian early tempo. Dutch goalkeeper Angela Christ proved a significant obstacle, however, and pulled off three excellent stops between the 16th and 32nd minutes to deny Caroline Pizzala, Nora Coton Pelagie and Eugénie Le Sommer.

Delie breakthrough
France missed another great chance to open the scoring after 35 minutes when Delie, scorer of two goals in the opening day win over Russia, headed wide from Pizzala's free kick. However, the tall striker was not to be denied for long and she showed fine predatory instincts to prod the ball in from close range after 40 minutes after the Dutch defence had failed to clear.

French denied 
The Netherlands' half-time introduction of Sheila van den Bulk and Amber van der Heijde failed to halt the French dominance and they were unlucky not to extend their lead after 48 minutes when Le Sommer rattled the crossbar with a right-foot drive and Delie almost scored in the ensuing scramble.

Back foot
Then, just short of the hour mark, Elodie Cordier's cross from the left went right across the Dutch goal but no player was able to make the necessary connection. The Netherlands spent much of the latters stages on the back foot, as the French defence remained unruffled.

Player of the match: Elodie Cordier (France)