Brown expects final repeat

The Norwegians meet the Swedes at Warrington in Thursday evening’s second semi-final, while 24 hours earlier champions Germany face outsiders Finland.

The Finns, European Championship debutantes and the lowest ranked team at the eight-nation event, lost their opening group game to England but then pipped Denmark to the Group A runners-up spot by beating the Danes in their final group outing.

“I’d love to see Finland beat Germany,” said Brown, “especially as we beat the Finns in our first group game. But I’m sure the Germans will have too much for them.

“You look around the German side and it’s hard to spot a weakness. In their last group game against France, for instance, they took off left winger Conny Pohlers at half time but the substitute, Pia Wunderlich, was outstanding.

“They’ve got good cover throughout the team and they’re tremendous in every department, as they’ve shown so far in the tournament by scoring more goals than anybody and conceding none at all.

“My fellow goalkeeper Silke Rottenberg is undoubtedly one of the world’s best, but she’s not really been pushed so far and I just wonder if Finland can change that.

“The Finns are tall and physical, which could help them against Germany, and in Anne Makinen and Laura Kalmari they’ve got two excellent players who we did our homework on before our game against them and the Germans will be doing so too.

“Makinen’s a world class midfielder, not a box-to-box player but very skilful, very creative and the heartbeat of the team. Kalmari’s a top striker and she and Heidi Kackur are a very dangerous combination up front.

“Kalmari scored Finland’s second goal against us and she scored again in the 2-1 win against Denmark. So Germany will certainly have to stay alert in defence, but I have to go for a Germany win.

“The other game’s more difficult to call," added Brown, "although I’m leaning towards Sweden because of their more recent successes in tournament football than Norway. But the teams have played against each other an awful lot and know each other inside out.

“Sweden’s great strength is the strike partnership of Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson, who’ve played together a long time now and are a real threat to any defence in the world.

“They not only score and create goals but they keep constant pressure on opposing defences. They’re always trying to stop you playing from the back, and they certainly closed me down quickly whenever I was trying to make clearances in our game against them on Saturday.

“The Swedes aren’t as strong at the back, though. The defence is a bit slow and right back in particular is a position where Norway might exploit them, particularly through their young striker Isabell Herlovsen who’s making quite a name for herself.

“She’s only 16 but she’s shown at this tournament that she’s got great potential and also scored a crucial goal in the game against France, where Norway came from behind to draw 1-1.

“After that they beat Italy 5-3 of course, and they’ll be boosted by scoring so many goals and with four players sharing them. With a scoring performance like that behind them they certainly won’t be short of confidence against Sweden, but they won’t be able to afford to leak goals like they did against the Italians.

“I think they’ll give the Swedes a run for their money and they could possibly beat them; but I’m sticking with Sweden to meet Germany in the final – again!”

If the Swedes do indeed face the Germans in Sunday’s final at Ewood Park, it will be the third time it’s happened in four European Championships. Germany won on each occasion and, once again as they head into the semi-finals, they are favourites to take the title.