2008 - The year in women's football

Next year is set to be a watershed in European women's football but there was plenty to remember in 2008.

EURO excitement
UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2009™ runs from 23 August until 10 September next year, with a record 12 teams involved in the finals and hosts Finland hoping for an average attendance of more than 10,000. The organisers will no doubt hope for as much excitement as there was in the qualifying group stage. While first holders Germany and then Sweden clinched automatic finals places with games to spare and ultimately perfect records, the other four groups went to last-match deciders where the teams in second were at home to the leaders. In two the home sides overtook their opponents, France beating Iceland 2-1 and Denmark defeating Ukraine 1-0, while England came from two goals down to get the 2-2 draw they needed in Spain and Norway held Russia 0-0.

Play-offs
At that point, only one of the eight 2005 finalists, Italy, were not already through but they defeated the Czech Republic 3-1 on aggregate in the play-offs to put that right. Iceland, Ukraine and the Netherlands reached the finals for the first time, defeating the Republic of Ireland, Slovenia and Spain respectively, while Russia repeated their 2001 feat but needed away goals to see off Scotland. The draw was held in Helsinki on 18 November: the full fixture list can be seen by clicking here.

German success
Prior to the end of qualifying, Germany, Sweden and Norway travelled to China for the Olympics. Sweden and Norway fell in the quarter-finals and after losing to Brazil, Germany clinched a third consecutive bronze medal 2-0 against Japan while the United States pipped Brazil for gold. Still, Germany will aim for a third straight FIFA Women's World Cup at home after being named 2011 hosts.

Youth events
At youth level Germany won the first UEFA European Women's Under-17 Championship in May in Nyon but two months later lost their grip on the U19 title, Italy beating Norway in the final in France. In the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand, Germany beat England 3-0 for third place while North Korea took the title against the United States. Similarly, in the U20 event in Chile, Germany overcame France to claim the bronze medal, while the US turned the tables on holders North Korea in the final.

Women's Champions League
At club level, the UEFA Women's Cup will be transformed in 2009/10 after it was announced in December that a new UEFA Women's Champions League will take its place, with more entries, more two-legged knockout rounds, and a one-off decider on the eve of the UEFA Champions League final in the same city. That said, the 2007/08 UEFA Women's Cup final was memorable enough after 1. FFC Frankfurt and Umeå IK beat ASD CF Bardolino Verona and Olympique Lyonnais in the last four.

Frankfurt thrill fans
With the victors to become the first three-time winners, Marta scored in the opening seconds of Umeå's home leg only for Frankfurt to peg back to 1-1 and in the return a week later a competition record crowd of 27,640 was thrilled by the German side's 3-2 victory. However, Frankfurt departed the 2008/09 edition in the quarter-finals against league rivals FCR Duisburg. Duisburg will meet Lyon in the semi-finals in the spring while another club new to the tournament, Zvezda-2005 of Russia, face Umeå.