Voss invigorated by Duisburg display

FCR 2001 Duisburg coach Martina Voss lauded her "world-class players" after they recorded a 6-0 triumph in the first leg of their UEFA Women's Cup final with Zvezda-2005 in Russia. Inka Grings fired a hat-trick as the German club gave themselves a mammoth lead ahead of what Voss predicts will be "a big football festival" in Duisburg on Friday. Zvezda coach Aleksandr Grigoryan promised that his charges "will go for a win in Germany" in his last game in charge, however, and regretted not employing "more defensive" tactics.

Aleksandr Grigoryan, Zvezda coach
I have never lost by such a scoreline and with so little possession. There are lots of reasons why we lost that I could mention, but the main one is that the players were not confident. A final is the moment to show what you can really do − what your potential is. That's the difference between great players and just very good players. However, this is a very painful blow to our ego. You might smile but we will go for a win in Germany.

I said it before the match and will repeat it now: nobody in history has played like Duisburg are playing now − this is highest level. However, they are not six goals better than us; that scoreline is too big. It happened because eight of our eleven players couldn't get into the game. Only [Nadezhda] Baranova, [Ksenia] Tsybutovich and [Alla] Lishafai played like they can. For my part, I definitely made mistakes in this defeat. First, I wanted the girls to be relaxed and tried to do everything to make them feel relaxed. If I had another opportunity, I would make the atmosphere more charged. The second thing to change would be tactics. I would have chosen to be more defensive.

Martina Voss, Duisburg coach
I did not expect such a huge win, which is absolutely great for us. I really liked the way we played and scored the goals. At half-time, I told the team that we should try not to concede a goal but I also asked them not to play defensively. I'm really proud of my team. The match showed that we have world-class players and everybody saw that. In the last ten minutes of the first half and especially at the start of the second, Zvezda were dangerous with long balls. I was a bit stressed about that and asked the players to be very careful, and they responded really well.

The key to our success was that tactically, we were at our best, especially with our diagonal passes. Also, we dominated one-on-one situations and were perfectly compact in defence. This is the first European title for me and most of my players – I think I can say that after such a score. We're happy. I'm sure there will be a big football festival in the second leg as 16,000 tickets have already been sold. It won't be a problem to motivate the players. We want to show that we can play at the top level not only in one match but in most of them. However, I haven't changed my opinion of Zvezda after this match. If I had to compare them with Olympique Lyonnais, then the French side have more stars but the Russians are better as a team. They have already played several good matches.