Last Thursday saw England’s women take on the Czech Republic in a tough group game for the 2009 European Championships in Finland.

The swirling wind and pouring rain made conditions very hard for the Three Lions, and the result was a disappointing 0-0 draw. However, England are still 5 points clear at the top of the group and remain unbeaten (see table below).

England Head Coach Hope Powell admitted she was disappointed with just a point at home to Czech Republic, but said that it was up to the players to learn from the performance and move on to the next challenge.

Powell said: "It was disappointing, I was pleased that we didn't lose the game actually. We're still unbeaten, but I think the players will be very disappointed.

"There are no excuses, I think Czech Republic slowed the game down and did a job. They got eleven players behind the ball at times, and it was difficult to play against but at times we were very naive. We couldn't work it out and at times we needed to play smarter, I'm not happy."

"We just didn't perform," Powell explained. "Not for the want of trying, I can't fault the players on that, they prepared well this week and worked hard…”

"We just had too many players that weren't on their game, and it is a harsh lesson. But thankfully we came away with something, we have a point and it could easily have gone the other way and we could have got nothing."

Having now played all their home fixtures, the team are faced with their 3 remaining group games all on foreign soil.

 - Away to Belarus on 8th May
 - Away to Czech Republic on 7th September
 - Away to Spain on 2nd October

England made their mark at the World Cup in China last September, and the pressure is now on to go even further at the European Championship - but the hard work starts here…

England’s Group