Three goals in the opening 12 minutes of a one-sided contest effectively wrapped up victory. "At 3-0 the game was over," conceded Finland Coach Michael Käld. But despite the emphatic scoreline Theune-Meyer was not satisfied with her team.

"I was happy with our performance for the first 15 minutes," she said, "but after that we didn’t calm down and find our game. We could perhaps have played a little more directly, but we finally started playing well after scoring our fourth goal.

"Finland really tried their best, but the fact that they were so attacking probably helped us a little bit. I was unhappy that we conceded a goal though, as I wanted us to go the whole tournament without letting one in.

"Those things happen, but I think we can play better and we have to improve on this performance in the final. Silvia Neid (Assistant Coach) says she wants to play Sweden in the final, but I don’t care - playing Norway would also be a classic game."

While the Germans start preparing for a meeting with the winners of Thursday evening’s Sweden-Norway clash in the final at Ewood Park on Sunday, the Finland squad are set to fly home after exceeding all expectations by reaching the semi-finals.

The lowest ranked team in the eight-nation tournament opened with a 3-2 Group A defeat by England, but they then drew with Sweden and beat Denmark to squeeze into the last four on goal difference ahead of the Danes.

An encounter with the European and World champions proved a match too far for Michael Käld’s team, but the Head Coach nevertheless hailed his players for their achievement at what was a first major tournament for any Finnish team of either sex.

"I’m very proud of my team," said Käld. "We’ve improved during the tournament and it’s been a great success. We have to learn from these games, but it’s our first time in a championship like this and we have reached the semi-finals so I can’t be disappointed."