England's best performance of the tournament was not enough to deny Germany at the Ernst-Abbe Stadium.

Hope Powell's side battled hard and, for an hour, held off the might of the Germans before goals from Petra Wimbersky, Bettina Wiegmann and Renate Lingor ended their stay in the competition.

Kelly Smith wasted a chance from the penalty spot in the dying minutes to rub salt into England's wounds.

England made an impressive start to their final pool match, with coach Powell making three changes to the starting line-up.

Weak header

She gave record goalscorer Karen Walker, Philadelphia Charge striker Kelly Smith and defender Faye White their first starts in the competition.

The two best chances of the opening 10 minutes came within 60 seconds of each other.

The Germans went close when Birgit Prinz crossed from the left flank and Claudia Mueller looped a weak header over the bar.

Then England hit back immediately when Walker went close with a header and Karen Burke shot wide.

Germany continued to push forward but Mueller spurned chance after chance as the Germans failed to break the deadlock.

Partisan crowd

England went close again just before the half-hour when Karen Burke made a break down the right, cut inside and fed Sue Smith, who shot straight at keeper Silke Rottenberg.

Germany finally opened the scoring when Wimbersky found the back of the net on 57 minutes.

England almost got an equaliser on 64 minutes, when Kelly Smith picked up a ball from Burke and beat Rottenberg only to see the ball come back off the right-hand upright.

Wiegmann then grabbed a second and Lingor the third for Germany, much to the delight of the partisan crowd of 11,312.

England: Cope, Murphy, White, Chapman, Unitt, Burke, Britton, Proctor, Susan Smith, Walker, Kelly Smith. Subs: Brown, Hall, Marley, Fletcher, Exley, Easton, Banks, Spacey, Yankey.

Germany: Rottenberg, Jones, Fitschen, Pia Wunderlich, Hingst, Smisek, Prinz, Weigmann, Minnert, Lingor, Claudia Muller. Subs: Angerer, Stegemann, Bresonik, Meinert, Martina Muller, Wilder, Omilade, Wimbersky, Tina Wunderlich.

Referee: Bente Skogvang (Norway).