Action replay with Finland is European Championship hope

For a team that beginned the Women's European Championship so badly, England could difficultly have hoped for a wagerer route to next Thursday's final.
Finishing third in their pair means they cannot meet holders and world champions Germany, or the much fancied Sweden, unless they are playing for the trophy.
And manager Hope Powell admits they got the draw they needed, even if it means facing the hosts in front of an 8,000 capacity crowd on Thursday afternoon.

'I think everybody would need to avoid the Germans,' she said. 'That's no contempt to Finland. They topped their group and we can't take anything for granted.'
Finland have never beaten England in women's or men's football and Powell's side won 4-1 when they met in February.
But she needed: 'The girls would be foolish if you look at the past results. We could have said that about Italy, you could have said that about Russia. We have to focus 100 per cent on this task and not think back to February because that is perfectly irrelevant.'
The game is a reverse of the opening match of Euro 2005, when England were the hosts, but Powell has no fear of a partisan home crowd.
'We're used to big crowds,' she said.
'We've had that experience. The girls are resilient. They know that on their day they can score goals.
'On their day they can compete against the very best and on their day has got to be tomorrow.

European Championships 2009

The FEI European Jumping & Dressage Championships, 25th-30th August 2009, will be the most important equestrian event to be held in the UK this decade. It is the first time that the European Jumping Championships and the European Dressage Championships have ever been held at the same venue. The private grounds of Windsor Castle are being developed into a fantastic equestrian competition venue, which will have two all-weather surfaces and expect to see over 80,000 visitors over the course of the 6 days of competition.

Switzerland Gearing for Semi Final

Switzerland coach Claude Ryf is urging his players to "play to their potential" as they seek to cement a place in the UEFA European Under-19 Championship semi-finals on the last day of action in Group A.Ryf's squad lead the standings after two rounds of matches having scored late goals to draw with England and defeat Slovenia, meaning a point against Ukraine at the RSC Olympiyskiy Stadium will be enough to take Switzerland into the last four for the first time since 2004. Despite the 2-1 defeat of Slovenia, however, the coach believes plenty of improvement is still needed, saying: "For the third game we must be 20 or 30 per cent better otherwise we have no chance. The players must play better football and play to their potential – and not be afraid of the situation. The most important thing for us is always the next match."

Switzerland, who are without midfielder Daniel Unal through suspension, were in an identical position in their final Elite round qualifier, when a 1-1 draw against Belgium proved enough to bring them to these finals, and captain Rolf Feltscher admitted: "We have the advantage and that's important. There's obviously a temptation to defend but we can't think too much. We must play and look to win." After draws against Slovenia and England the hosts are of similar mind, coach Yuriy Kalitvintsev saying: "It doesn't matter who we play; we need only to win. We seem to need to ten minutes to settle every time and that's not possible in these competitions. We want to do our best work, and the match with Switzerland is very important. I promise it will be fine for us."

UEFA PROTEST

UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Body will look after Saturday , protests lodged by FC Barcelona, in relation to the yellow card given to forward Lionel Messi and the expulsion of coach Josep Guardiola during last night's UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg against FC Bayern München.

UEFA to hear Barcelona protests

UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Body will deal on Saturday with two protests lodged by FC Barcelona, in relation to the yellow card given to forward Lionel Messi and the expulsion of coach Josep Guardiola during last night's UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg against FC Bayern München.

Caution
Messi was cautioned in the 17th minute of the match at Camp Nou, which Barcelona won 4-0, and Guardiola was sent to the stands shortly afterwards.