Brøndby face Arsenal obstacle

Brøndby IF midfielder Cathrine Paaske Sørensen insisted "the final is our goal" prior to the UEFA Women's Cup last-eight tie against 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam. Paaske and her ambitious team-mates then caused a minor upset by knocking out the 2005 winners but now find ambitious Arsenal LFC standing in their way in the semi-finals.

English test
The two teams will already be familiar with each other having met in the second qualifying round, where the English champions won 1-0 to reverse the score at the same stage the year before. Henrik Jensen's side, though, should be roared on by a bumper crowd for the first leg on Saturday after the town of Brondby decided to offer free admission to its citizens.

New territory
Regardless of the outcome, Brøndby have already enjoyed their best international performance since the 2003/04 campaign. The west Copenhagen club made it through to the last four that year before being beaten by Umeå IK from Sweden, the eventual champions. Should Brøndby reach the final this time round it would represent the greatest result in the club's history as only one Danish team has made it all the way to that stage. That was domestic arch-rivals Fortuna Hjørring in 2002/03, who lost 7-1 on aggregate - also to Umeå. Fortuna currently lead Brøndby by a single point in the Danish league, and the teams' meeting on 19 November will prove a thrilling end to the first half of the season.

Lean years
Brøndby may have monopolised the domestic scene since but success in Europe has been very thin on the ground. Dumped out at the group stage in 2004/05 and ousted by Montpellier HSC in the quarter-finals last season, Brøndby are seemingly only now realising their vast potential, boasting the bulk of the Danish national team that recently qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Slow start
It seemed their campaign would fizzle out again in the quarter-finals this time around, as being pipped in the previous stage by Arsenal meant they were handed a tie with the might of Potsdam. Despite being the clear underdogs, a 3-0 win in the first leg in Denmark and then an early away goal a week later in the return set up a 4-2 aggregate victory and now they have a chance for revenge on Arsenal.

Crushing form
However, a look at Arsenal's results for this season confirm that will be no easy task. Arsenal have won all their 17 competitive fixtures in 2006/07, and against Breidablik in the quarter-finals they triumphed 5-0 and 4-1. Indeed, Brøndby are the only team to have held Arsenal to a one-goal margin of victory this term, and the London club also dominate their national-team lineup as England qualified for the Women's World Cup for the first time in 12 years.

'Tough team'
One of Arsenal's many internationals, Anita Asante, has done superbly since stepping back from midfield into defence after captain Faye White suffered cruciate knee ligament damage in pre-season. "Brøndby will be a tough team and have a lot of quality in their side and we are not going to take anything for granted," Asante said. "We will put up a good performance again and hopefully go all the way."

Synergy
Arsenal reached the semi-finals in 2004/05, losing to Djurgården/Älvsjö, but the team is benefiting this year from the parallel success of their national-team players. Asante said: "There's positive vibes going around both camps. Obviously a lot of us play together, it helps, it's a plus in both competitions."