The 2005 UEFA Women's Championship, also referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2005, was a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament for

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

held from 5 June to 19 June 2005 in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, England. The UEFA Women's Championship is a regular tournament involving European national teams from countries affiliated to

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

, the European governing body, who have qualified for the competition. The competition aims to determine which national women's team is the best in Europe.

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

won the competition for the fourth consecutive tournament, and the sixth time overall (including one win in the predecessor tournament, the ''European Competition for Representative Women's Teams''). Their championship win was the last for coach Tina Theune-Meyer, who months earlier had announced her retirement effective at the end of the tournament. In her nine years in charge of Germany, they won three European titles, two bronze medals in the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

, and the 2003 World Cup.

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

made its debut in the competition.

Teams and structure

Eight national teams participated – seven of which qualified from earlier stages, plus England, which received an automatic berth as the host nation. They were split into two groups of four: Group A and Group B. Each team in a group played each other once, with the top two teams in each group progressing to the semi-finals. The winner faced the runner-up of the other group in a play-off, with the winner of each semi-final advancing to the final to determine the champion.

Group A

* * * *

Group B

* * * *

Qualification

A qualifying round ran from 22 March to 3 October 2004. The teams which were entered played in a group stage, with the winners advancing to the final, and the runners-up being given the chance of qualification through a play-off. England, as the host nation, qualified automatically for the tournament. This was the first time in which the hosts qualified automatically for the final tournament. The following teams were eliminated at this stage: *Armenia, Austria,

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, Romania, Scotland, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine Three teams were also eliminated in play-offs for the tournament: *Czech Republic, Iceland, Russia
More information on the qualification format at UEFA.com

Squads

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 2005 UEFA Women's Championship squads

Match officials

; Croatia * Blazenka Logarusic ; Czech Republic * Dagmar Damková * Hana Spackova ; England *

Amy Rayner Amy Elizabeth Fearn (''née'' Rayner; born 20 November 1977) is an England, English Association football, football Referee (association football), referee from Loughborough, Leicestershire, who in 2010 became the first woman to referee in The Fo ...

Wendy Toms Wendy Ann Toms (born 16 October 1962) is an English former football referee from Broadstone, Dorset who has officiated in the Football League and then the Premier League, both as an assistant referee. She was the first female ever to fulfil su ...

; Hungary * Gyöngyi Gaál ; Northern Ireland * Andi Regan ; Poland *

Katarzyna Nadolska Katarzyna is a Polish given name, equivalent to English "Catherine". Its diminutive forms include Kasia, Katarzynka, Kasieńka, Kasiunia, Kasiulka; augmentative – Kaśka, Kacha, Kachna. Individuals named Katarzyna may choose their name day ...

; Romania * Floarea Cristina Ionescu * Irina Mirt ; Slovakia * Alexandra Ihringova * Miroslava Migalova ; Spain * Yolanda Parga Rodriguez ; Switzerland * Elke Lüthi * Nicole Petignat ; United States of America *

Kari Seitz Kari Seitz is an American professional soccer referee and the most experienced female referee in the World (out of the male and female referees) She participated in four FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments in (1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011), as well ...

Results

First round

Top two teams in each group advanced to the semi-finals

Group A

Note: *Finland and Denmark finished level on points. Finland advanced to the semi-finals due to their head-to-head win. ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Group B

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

----

Final

Goalscorers

;4 goals * Inka Grings ;3 goals * Conny Pohlers *

Birgit Prinz Birgit Prinz (born 25 October 1977) is a German former footballer, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and three-time FIFA World Player of the Year. In addition to the German national team, Prinz played for 1. FFC Frankfurt in the Frauen ...

Solveig Gulbrandsen Solveig Ingersdatter Gulbrandsen (born 12 January 1981) is a Norwegian former footballer played a midfielder. At club level she has previously represented Kolbotn, FC Gold Pride, Vålerenga Fotball Damer and Stabæk. With the Norwegian nati ...

Hanna Ljungberg Hanna Carolina Ljungberg (born 8 January 1979) is a Swedish former association football Forward (association football), forward. She spent the majority of her club career at Umeå IK and was a Sweden women's national football team, Swedish intern ...

;2 goals * Cathrine Paaske-Sørensen * Laura Österberg Kalmari * Marinette Pichon * Renate Lingor * Melania Gabbiadini * Isabell Herlovsen *

Lise Klaveness Lise Klaveness (born 19 April 1981) is a Norwegian lawyer and former Association football, footballer who played 73 matches for Norway women's national football team, Norway's national team between 2002 and 2011. She is currently the president o ...

* Dagny Mellgren ;1 goal * Merete Pedersen * Johanna Rasmussen * Amanda Barr * Karen Carney *

Fara Williams Fara Tanya Franki Merrett (born 25 January 1984), known professionally as Fara Williams, is an English former Women's association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. A consistent goalscorer and set-piece specialist, Williams was co ...

* Heidi Kackur * Minna Mustonen * Anna-Kaisa Rantanen * Stéphanie Mugneret-Béghé * Hoda Lattaf * Steffi Jones * Sandra Minnert * Anja Mittag * Elisa Camporese * Sara Di Filippo * Marit Christensen * Anna Sjöström ;Own goal * Sanna Valkonen (playing against England)

Legacy

The tournament was viewed as a successful one by

The Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

. The tournament is credited with popularising women's football in England.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:UEFA Women's Euro 2005

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

June 2005 sports events in the United Kingdom

Teams and structure

Group A

Group B

Qualification

Squads

Match officials

Results

First round

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage

Semi-finals

Final

Goalscorers

Legacy

See also

References

External links