By Samindra Kunti
July 31 – The Women’s Euro 2017 Championship in Holland burst into life this weekend with the quarter-finals. Denmark knocked out defending champions Germany in a major upset while England, Austria and the hosts progressed to the last four as well. UEFA recording record TV audiences during the group stages.
In Doetinchem the Dutch were backed by a buoyant sell-out crowd and they responded with a reassured performance against Sweden to reach the last four.
Winger Lieke Martens opened the scoring with a low free-kick before new Arsenal-signing Vivianne Miedema tapped in her 42nd international goal. The Orange Lionesses have never reached the final of a major tournament and they will face England in the semi-finals on Thursday.
The English earned a first win against France in 43 years in their quarter-final on Sunday courtesy of a Jodie Taylor second-half strike, her fifth goal in the tournament. The game was high in quality but lacked chances.
“For the team, we are consistently making history with our performances and results,” said England coach Mark Sampson, who took over from Hope Powell in 2013 and led the Lionesses to a bronze medal at the 2015 Canada Women’s World Cup.
“We have excited the English public,” explained Sampson. “It has been a long time since the country had a team they can believe in in terms of winning a major tournament. But there are four fantastic teams left in the competition. Now we have to make that next step and get into our first final together.”
The other side of the draw produced two major surprises. Denmark ended Germany’s bid for a seventh consecutive European Championship title with a 2-1 win against the tournament favorites. Isabel Kerschowski scored a fortuitous opener for the Germans, but Nadia Nadim nodded Denmark level after half-time and Theresa Nielsen’s late header completed the comeback.
The reigning champions were impotent in their response and crashed out, losing only their third game in the 26-year history of the competition. The stunning Danish win blew the tournament wide open, with Group C winners and revelation Austria eliminating much fancied Spain.
Both teams were tentative in their approach, with penalties the inevitable conclusion at the end of a dreary 120 minutes. Austrian goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger proved to be the hero for her team who now play Denmark for a place in the final.
With the tournament gripping fans across Holland, UEFA has reported record viewing figures across the continent in the first round. Those numbers are expected to swell during the business end of Euro 2017.
The cumulative TV audience for the group stages was 81.5 million, up from 60.8 million in 2013. Germany vs Russia was the most watched game in the group stages, with seven million viewers on ARD, a 24% market share. Channel 4 attracted 2.2 million viewers in the UK for England’s matches and over 800,000 viewers watched Austria play Iceland on public broadcaster ORF, a market share of over 30% and the highest number ever for a women’s match in Austria.
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