England tonight became the first team to reach the final in Women´s Euro 2009 in Finland, but they had to fight hard for the win against Netherlands and scored the decisive 2-1 goal in extra time.
The game had one face, England holding the ball and trying to break down the orange wall of ten defending players of Netherlands.
It was seldom Netherlands got forward to attack, but they managed once and that was enough to equalize England´s lead and take the game to extra time. England didn´t have many chances either, because of good defending from the oranges.
After one hour of play they did manage to break down the wall. Jessica Clarke put pressure on a defender and got the ball to Eniola Aluko who found Kelly Smith in front of the goal. Smith who was the number one threat upfront for England made no mistake.
It took Netherlands only three minutes to get the equalizer, and it all started with an excellent back heel pass from Karin Stevens who set Manon Melis free at the right flank and her pass in to the goal finally ended up with Marlous Pieete who scored.
At the end of ordinary time England pushed hard for a winning goal, but didn´t manage to get through the Netherlands defense led by skipper Daphen Koster.
The same way it continued during extra time, and it was all set for a penalty shoot out when England got a corner. Karen Carney gave the corner and Jill Scott, free in front of the goal, headed the ball into the net.
Two substitutes, Carney and Scott, had given England the win and a big celebration followed. Smith was named Player of the Match.
In the final England will meet the winner of the second semi final between Germany and Norway tomorrow.
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