Wimbersky fires Turbine through

By Mark Bennett

1. FFC Turbine Potsdam secured their place in the UEFA Women's Cup semi-finals by beating FC Energy Voronezh 4-1 on Sunday. Anja Mittag and Viola Odebrecht scored either side of two Petra Wimbersky goals to carry the German champions safely through to the last four with a 5-2 aggregate victory.

Rapid recoveries
Potsdam went into the match with fewer injury worries than expected. Mittag, the leading scorer at the UEFA European Women's Under-19 Championship in the summer, recovered from a thigh strain in time to keep her place in the starting lineup and German international Wimbersky shook off a knee problem to start alongside her.

Mittag magic
Mittag gave Potsdam the start they had been looking for to turn the tide in their favour after the 1-1 draw in Russia last week. The striker received the ball on 15 minutes and hit the target to give the German champions the upper hand. Potsdam continued to look the better side throughout the first half, but failed to add to their total, which gave the visitors the chance to hit back six minutes into the second half when Nadeschda Bossikowa levelled the scores.

Penalty converted
Potsdam regrouped and were rewarded rewarded on 64 minutes when Wimbersky struck to restore their lead. Eight minutes later she made sure of victory from the penalty spot before being substituted to warm applause 16 minutes from time. Odebrecht completed the scoring late on to leave coach Bernd Schröder satisfied. "I am extremely relieved and very happy with our performance here today," he said. "Voronezh proved to be the tough opponents I expected."

'Looking forward'
"We weren't worried when they equalised and kept playing our game," added Wimbersky. "In the end I think we deserved to win the tie and now we can look forward to the semis." There they will meet either SK Trondheims-Ørn or FC Bobruichanka, with the former holding a 4-0 lead ahead of Saturday's home second leg in Norway.