Israel ends Women’s U19 Euros with a defeat to Denmark
“The girls gave their all in every match and they deserve every credit."
By ALLON SINAIStriker Eden Avital (right) scored Israel’s first goal of the Women’s Under-19 European Championship last night, but midfielder Lauren Goetzman (center) and the blue-and-white couldn’t maintain the lead, dropping to a 2-1 defeat to Denmark in Lod(photo credit: ISRAEL FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION WEBSITE)
Israel suffered its third loss in as many matches to cap its Women’s Under-19 European Championship campaign in Lod on Tuesday. However, the blue-andwhite did at least manage to net its first goal of the tournament in the 2-1 defeat to Denmark.Eden Avital gave Israel a 22nd-minute lead, but Nicoline Sorensen’s brace (33, 60) secured Denmark’s win in a match between two teams that had already lost any hope of advancing to the semifinals.The blue-and-white was widely considered to be the weakest team in the tournament and ended it with a 1-9 goal-difference after also dropping to a 3-0 defeat to Sweden and a 4-0 loss to France.However, Israel coach Guy Azouri was extremely proud of his team’s display on Tuesday, and throughout the championship, claiming that the squad has made massive improvement since first training together two years ago.“If we are disappointed after not managing to take a point against a team like Denmark that says it all,” said Azouri. “The girls gave their all in every match and they deserve every credit. This was well above my expectations. This tournament was the first time that they have played rivals of this quality so we were really concerned.This shows that if we continue to work hard than the sky is the limit.”France will play Spain and Germany will face Sweden in the semifinals on Friday, with the final to be held in Netanya next Monday.