Germany charged into their second consecutive FIFA Women's World Cup Final on 26 September, sweeping aside Norway by a 3-0 scoreline at the Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium to give themselves a royal chance of becoming the first nation in history to retain the ultimate symbol of women's football supremacy. In front of 53,819 fans - an attendance at these finals bettered only by the sell-out 55,832 crowd which watched China and New Zealand at the same venue a week ago, these past winners of the FIFA Women's World Cup produced a quite breathless first forty-five minutes of football. The pace and relentless nature of the game had to be seen to be believed, as both teams went all out on attack from the very first whistle, Germany doing so despite having yet to concede a goal in this tournament. The reigning champions fired the first shot in anger inside the first sixty seconds, Sandra Smisek's difficult volleyed effort from twenty yards dipping inches over the bar following Kerstin Garefrekes' incursions on the right. Norway responded inside two minutes, led by Camilla Huse. Her angled ball in was left by Germany's defence, a mistake which could have proven costly had the ever-alert Ragnhild Gulbrandsen been able to direct her flick on target, having ghosted in behind the German rearguard in anticipation of Huse's delivery. The game quickly gathered a head of steam, with only a vital tackle by Annike Krahn in the eighth minute thwarting Gulbrandsen, after Marie Knutsen had slipped Leni Larsen Kaurin into the German penalty area on the right. Back came the holders, led by Birgit Prinz. The three-time FIFA Women's Player of the Year buccaneered down the left and drew the defence before setting up Renate Lingor for a shot. The playmaker was disgusted with her twenty-yard effort, and with some justification. The resulting goal kick from Bente Nordby set off a Norwegian raid, with Kaurin again leading the rampage. Gulbrandsen was the beneficiary of her endeavours, only for Krahn to again step in and avert the danger, sparking a German counter-attack in the process. Down the left steamed Simone Laudehr, only to be crudely chopped down by Kaurin, an action which earned the Norwegian the ignominy of being the only player booked in the entire match by referee Dagmar Damkova, a reflection of the open, free-flowing nature in which this all-European semi-final was played. Lingor lined up the resulting free-kick, and delivered it to the near post, where Smisek, darting in ahead of the Norwegian rearguard, sent a header flashing over the bar in the fifteenth minute. The end-to-end action continued apace. The charging run of Prinz was thwarted by the massed ranks of red-shirted defenders, who sent Kaurin careering down the right in response. Linda Bresonik stopped the speedster dead in her tracks and released Prinz once more, with Germany's captain this time unleashing a shot, albeit a wayward one. Back came Kaurin, a fifty yard run resulting in a twenty-five yarder which German goalkeeper Nadine Angerer gobbled up greedily, repeating the feat seconds later as Ingvild Stensland chanced her arm from distance. Norway got on top at this stage of proceedings, and for a few minutes it looked as if they had the reigning champions' number. Trine Ronning and Stensland combined to send Knutsen scampering forward, and her measured cross for Gulbrandsen was headed narrowly past the post by the striker. That Germany couldn't get the ball out of their own half at this time was due in no small part to the

Trojan-like efforts of Norway's midfield general, Solveig Gulbrandsen, whose pass to namesake Ragnhild allowed the striker to set up Kaurin for a shot. Her tame effort should have been dealt with capably by Angerer, but the goalkeeper made a meal of it, and embarrassingly fumbled the ball past her own post. The resulting corner was delivered to the edge of the German penalty area by Stensland, Solveig Gulbrandsen her target. She let fly with a first-time screamer which sizzled low through a crowded penalty area, Angerer redeeming herself with a solid save on the line. The Germans weathered the storm, and retorted in like fashion. Only a fine tackle by Ronning denied Melanie Behringer in the 24th minute, after Prinz and Bresonik had teamed up on the left. Then it was Prinz's turn to gather possession, threading a pass through from half-way for Lingor, who took on and beat three defenders before a second attempt to skip round Ronning saw the defender extract revenge on the edge of the penalty area. On the half-hour, the Germans produced one of the best free-kick routines seen at the tournament. Lingor's ball forward was headed across goal by Krahn towards the goalmouth, where Smisek was at her terrier-like best upsetting the Norwegian defenders as they attempted to deal with the danger. Nordby eventually intervened, as did her opposite number five minutes later, Angerer plucking the ball off Solveig Gulbrandsen's head after her namesake, Ragnhild, had been the beneficiary of the industry of Knutsen and Kaurin on the right. Three minutes before half-time, disaster struck for Norway. Behringer had hobbled off, to be replaced by speedy German substitute Fatmire Bajramaj, and with her first touch, the replacement played a telling ball down the left to release Prinz at pace. Into the penalty area she charged before drilling a low cross into the goalmouth. The ball ricocheted off the retreating figure of Ronning, and before Nordby could react, the net bulged - 1-0 to the reigning world champions, courtesy an own goal. It was a genuine sucker-punch for the Norwegians, who, straight from the kick-off, stormed downfield and forced a corner. Stensland's delivery caused chaos in the German penalty area, with two goal-line clearances required before Angerer finally got her hands on the ball to deny Ronning's headed attempt to make swift amends for her unfortunate own goal at the right end of the park. Norwegian coach, Bjarne Berntsen, threw caution to the wind early in the second spell, and used all three of his available substitutes within the first eleven minutes of the half - two tactical, one brought upon him by the injury Gunhild Folstad suffered in the 48th minute. Brave is an understatement. But the changes back-fired on him badly, as the Norwegians never recovered their first half rhythm and ended up looking a shadow of the team which graced the game during the first forty-five minutes. For that, much credit deservedly goes to Germany, who were at their relentless best throughout the second spell, to such an extent that, while the half-time scoreline was a tad flattering to the cup holders, the second half scoreline made Norway look good - the Germans could have triumphed by an even bigger margin. After having set out their stall, Silvia Neid's team stepped up a couple of gears and proceeded to cause havoc in areas Norway didn't want to see exposed. Only a despairing tackle from Ronning denied Garefrekes in the act of shooting just shy of the hour mark, while had someone been far enough forward to support Prinz, after she had taken on Norway's defence and whipped a vicious cross

across the face of goal, they would have been presented with a tap-in while Norwegian defences moved on. Next, it was the turn of Garefrekes and Laudehr - an under-rated player - to run at the Norwegian defence, and it was the latter whose pull-back from the by-line deserved better than to see Ronning clearing the danger her delivery posed. After Lingor had lashed a twenty-five yarder over the crossbar following Prinz's classic target-man play - she's an extremely difficult player to retrieve possession from when she has her back to goal, Norway mounted their first raid of the half, in the 71st minute. Ronning's tackle on Bajramaj presented Kaurin with possession, and she released half-time substitute Lise Klaveness with her pass. The newcomer touched the ball into the path of another replacement, Lene Storlokken, who found Kerstin Stegemann thwarting her path to glory. She returned possession to Klaveness, who sent her first-time twenty-yarder flying past the post. Germany's response was to kill off the game as a contest, by scoring twice in a four-minute spell. In the 72nd minute, Laudehr surged into Norway's half of the field before sending Prinz powering into the penalty area. Ane Stangeland Horpestad thwarted her progress, but Prinz simply turned the ball back to Stegemann, who was up in support of the attack. The fullback hit a first-time effort which arced up and over the stranded figure of Nordby and into the net via the far post. At 2-0 down, the Norwegians were facing a daunting prospect, but when the Germans' third goal found the net in the 75th minute, the losing team knew that the third place play-off would be their lot at this year's FIFA Women's World Cup Finals. An awful error by substitute Siri Nordby saw German replacement Martina Mueller swoop on her under-hit back-pass and steer the ball beyond the despairing dive of Bente Nordby to clinch the world champions' place in a second successive final. Still Germany pressed, with Bajramaj rattling the crossbar after Garefrekes and Prinz had teamed up on the right. The German captain capitalised on another defensive lapse soon after, and tried to conjure something from virtually on the by-line. Incredibly, it nearly came off, Nordby spilling Prinz's driven low cross, which prompted a goal-line clearance by Ronning, but only as far as Lingor, who sent a twenty-yarder sizzling past the far post by not a lot. After these opportunities, the title-holders eased off, knowing that the hard work was done. Their goal-line had yet to be breached in the entire tournament, however, so the Norwegians endeavoured to alter that statistic in the time remaining, via a Ragnhild Gulbrandsen header and a shot on the run from Knutsen, both of which were saved by Angerer, whose stop from the latter attempt was top drawer stuff. Laudehr's stoppage time attempt to net a goal from twenty-five yards which her non-stop efforts merited was foiled by Bente Nordby, but the three goals the Germans had put past the Norwegian goalkeeper were more than suffice to secure the reigning champs a chance at retaining their crown in Shanghai on Sunday, something never done before in the history of the FIFA Women's World Cup. Germany:     Angerer; Stegemann, Krahn, Hingst, Bresonik (Minnert, 81); Garefrekes, Lingor, Laudehr, Behringer (Bajramaj, 40); Prinz, Smisek (Mueller, 65) Norway:     B. Nordby; Folstad (S. Nordby, 48), Ronning, Stangeland Horpestad, Stensland; Kaurin (booked, 14), S. Gulbrandsen (Storlokken, 56), Knutsen, Huse; Herlovsen (Klaveness, 46), R. Gulbrandsen Referee:     Dagmar Damkova (Czech Republic)