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Irene Paredes equalizes for Spain
Photo: BEN STANSALL / AFP
In the »German Group B«, Spain won its opening game against Finland 4:1 (2:1) at the European Football Championship.
Irene Paredes (26th minute), Aitana Bonmati (41st), Lucia Garcia (75th) and Maria Caldentey (90th + 4th) scored for the favorites, Linda Sällström had given Finland the lead (1st).
World footballer Alexia Putellas was still there: on crutches and in tears, she watched the kick-off in Milton Keynes.
The superstar from FC Barcelona will not be able to play in this tournament, a few days before the start of the European Championship finals Putellas tore the cruciate ligament in his left knee.
Bad news for the co-favourites, who walked through qualifying with eight wins and 48-0 goals.
And the next one followed less than 60 seconds after the kick-off: Anna Westerlund played a nice pass half-right into the attack, where Sällström started towards the goal and completed it with a right-footed shot into the left corner (1st).
A perfect start for the underdogs, because now she could concentrate on her strengths: defending well - they conceded only two goals in eight qualifying games - and counterattacking.
One of these quick counterattacks almost made it 2-0, but Sällström fired just wide to the left (12').
Spain's first dangerous situation came from a slipped cross from Leila, which dropped onto the crossbar (19').
It was the starting signal for a powerful phase for Spain.
The favorites took corner after corner, and the ninth equalized: Paredes, who replaced Putellas as captain, headed in after a cross from Caltendey (26').
Bonmati also headed the lead for Spain.
The 24-year-old from FC Barcelona put the ball into the right angle from twelve meters with a lot of pressure and the right timing – a dream goal (41st).
In the second half, Finland's goalkeeper Tinja Korpela took center stage.
Among other things, she prevented a further deficit after a solo by Ona Batlle (56th) and a header by Laia Aleixandri (62nd), and in the deserved 1:3 by Garcia - of course again with a header - she had no chance (75th).
Caltendey converted another penalty in added time (90+4).
Germany and Denmark meet in Group B in the evening (9 p.m.).
Finland and Denmark (6 p.m.) and Spain and Germany (9 p.m.) will face each other next Tuesday.
mfu
