ENSCHEDE, August 7, 2017 – Pride, for a change, wentbefore a triumph for Lieke Martens as the Netherlands swept the UEFA Women’sEURO 2017 with their final dismissal of Denmark in Enschede before a euphorichome crowd.
The Barcelona winger said: “I’m really proud of the teamand what we have achieved. We had the toughest group of the tournament and wonthree games. We had two big victories [v Sweden and England] so it felt so goodand we had confidence.
"In this final we had to come back from a goal forthe first time. We really deserved to win this tournament.”
Martens was also awarded the Player of the Tournamenttrophy in front of her jubilant teammates after the game.
Denmark scored first, with a penalty by Nadia Nadim whichsilenced a majority of the 28,182 spectators at FC Twente Stadion. But VivianneMiedema soon equalised on the way to home success.
Head coach Sarina Wiegman said: "I wasn’t worriedabout the result. But we didn’t do our task well enough. We talked about thatin the halftime break. After that we got better.”
Vivianne Miedema, who scored twice, said: “I’m just happyI could help the team. We played six amazing games. We showed today, that evenif we get behind we could change the game. We just need to enjoy this moment.”
Miedema was the tournament's second best scorer with fourgoals, beaten only by England’s Jodie Taylor with five.
This trophy was the first major prize for the Netherlandswomen's team. The last trophy any Dutch senior team won came in 1988 when themen’s team won their own Euro.
Wiegman added: "We wanted to show the public who weare and that we can play good football. We did such a good job on workingtogether. I thought the development that we made was so amazing. I couldn’tbelieve that it was happening.”
For Denmark, the tournament ended in tears though headcoach Nils Nielsen praised the Netherlands.
He said: “I will have to say that I enjoyed being a partof this final. Two teams tried their best to win. The Dutch team scored more goalsthan us. Their team were the best in the tournament so they becamewell-deserved champions."
