The Germans produced three clear rounds at the Club de Campo, in Madrid, to snatch the title from overnight leaders The Netherlands, who dropped to fourth place. France won silver and Britain took the bronze medal.

An Olympic qualifying spot was some compensation for the Dutch, who will be joined in London next summer by Switzerland and Sweden.

Spain's hopes of clinching one of the three 2012 qualifying places faded as the competition progressed, as did those of Ireland, whose only chance of representation now lies in the Olympic rankings list.

Portugal, who were fielding only three horse-and-rider combinations in Madrid and who were in 10th place overnight, had to withdraw from the team competition after Marina Frutuoso de Melo's stallion, Coltaire Z, suffered a leg injury.

Eleventh-placed Italy had hoped they might be allowed to take Portugal's place, but FEI rules would not allow it.

Meanwhile, the water fence was changed for the second round of the team competition, after a high number of faults at this obstacle in the first round. It was agreed the grey wall did not provide sufficient contrast with the all-weather sand footing, so it was replaced with the darker frontage used for the speed competition on Wednesday.

The Netherlands' grip on the gold medal began to loosen when Eric van der Vleuten faulted at the second element of the triple combination and the oxer, two fences later, while his son, Maikel, returned with three mistakes.

The Germans established their authority with fabulous clears from Marco Kutscher, on Cornet Obolensky, and Carsten-Otto Nagel, on Corradina, who leads the individual championship going into Sunday's final.

France consolidated third place when Michel Robert (Kellemoi de Pepita) and Penelope Leprevost (Mylord Carthago) were also foot-perfect, and Britain, in fourth place, were strengthened by another exciting clear from Nick Skelton and Carlo. This was followed by a highly-impressive round from Guy Williams and Titus, who collected just a single time fault.

When Janne-Friederike Meyer came into the ring with Cellagon Lambrasco, she could afford a fence down and a time fault, but used up just one of these lives – when the second element of the penultimate double hit the floor – to secure gold for Germany.

Ludger Beerbaum and Gotha completed the German effort with a great clear round.

"We thought Holland would win because they looked so dominant and so strong, but this competition was open, right to the very end," said Beerbaum, who has now won two individual and four team gold medals at the Europeans.

"Because of good course building, we ended up having great sport."

"I was really happy with my round," added Meyer. "Maybe after a beer or two I'll have a look at the video and see what I did wrong at that fence. But two super rounds and one down is OK for my first championship."

Nagel was also delighted. "The feeling of winning team gold is really good and I'm very happy with my horse," he said.

"Working with her is good and really easy. Her form is unbelievable right now, so there is no reason why it should stop!"

Gerco Schröder's clear with Eurocommerce New Orleans boosted his personal ranking, but couldn't rescue the situation for The Netherlands.

When Jeroen Dubbeldam's BMC Vans Grunsven Simon put a foot in the water and also fell foul of the final double, the Dutch slipped out of the medals, even after discarding the 12 picked up by Maikel van der Vleuten.

Britain benefited from the Dutch slide and, with anchorman John Whitaker (Peppermill) providing the eight-fault drop score, they had just the four faults – from Ben Maher's mistake at the oxer at fence five – to add to Williams' single time fault, to take bronze.

"This result has boosted the spirit of our team looking ahead to next year," said Maher. "We've been struggling lately with a lack of medals, so I hope we can use this result to push ourselves forward for the future."

Whitaker added: "We knew we had a chance and we were going well, but so was everyone else – so, at one stage, I thought it was slipping away from us.

"But it didn't.

"We're very happy with the bronze."

The French were in fine form as they celebrated their silver medals.

Kevin Staut and Silvana de Hus rounded up the treble of foot-perfect performances so that Olivier Guillon's error at the wall – the same fence that resulted in him losing his position as first-day leader 24 hours earlier – could be discounted, to leave them with nothing to add to their tally of 15.95.

"I was thinking about the wall after yesterday and tried to find a solution," said Guillon, who is lying ninth in the individual competition.

"But it was not such a good solution – I hope it will be better on Sunday!

"We woke up really motivated to stay on the podium and, already in third, we would have been happy with bronze."

Madrid has bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games and Club de Campo de Villa Madrid has been proposed as the venue for golf, modern pentathlon, equestrian and hockey.

Result:
Team Championship: Gold: Germany 10.41; Silver: France 15.95; Bronze: Great Britain 22.46; 4: Netherlands 23.42; 5: Sweden 34.73; 6: Switzerland 40.66; 7: Belgium 41.78; 8: Spain 46.53; 9: Ireland 54.12.

Individual Standings: 1, Corradina (Carsten-Otto Nagel) GER 0.69; 2, Carlo (Nick Skelton) GBR 1.04; 3, Eurocommerce New Orleans (Gerco Schröder) NED 1.54; 4, Winningmood (Luciana Diniz) POR 4.98; 5, Ninja La Silla (Rolf-Göran Bengtsson) SWE 5.77; 6, Mylord Carthago*HN (Pénélope Leprevost) FRA 6.55; 7, Cellagon Lambrasco (Janne-Friederike Meyer) GER 6.99; 8, Kellemoi de Pepita (Michel Robert) FRA 7.16; 9, Lord de Theize (Olivier Guillon) FRA 8.00; 10, Gotha FRH (Ludger Beerbaum) GER 8.23.

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