Vanessa Ziegler gave Germany a 29th-minute lead but Ellie Brazil equalisedwithin 2 minutes.
Klara Bühl restored the advantage at the start of the second half, only for Alessia Russo to respond second later.
But Tanja Pawollek put Germany 3-2 before the hour mark, afterwhich Ziegler made it 4-2 with her second goal 10 minutes from the end.
Russo also got her second goal to pull it back to 4-3 with just 3 minutes left but the Young Lionesses could not force extra-time.
However, they can still qualify for the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup by beating Norway in the third-place play-off on Monday at 1pm.
The Norwegians were beaten 4-0 by Spain in the other semi-final earlier today.
Photo – Mario Russo
