Heroine Grings vows to bring it all back home

FCR 2001 Duisburg may hold a seemingly-impregnable 6-0 lead going into Friday's home second leg of the UEFA Women's Cup final with Zvezda-2005, but the Kazan hat-trick heroine Inka Grings promised to still put on a show, vowing: "We will do it for the fans."

Hat-trick
Grings, 30, has been prolific for Germany and in the Frauen-Bundesliga with Duisburg for more than a decade but this season has been her, and her club's, first campaign in the UEFA Women's Cup. Following their convincing win in Russia on Saturday against Zvezda, and Grings's three goals, Duisburg look certain to follow domestic rivals 1. FFC Frankfurt and 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam in winning the trophy on their debut season. But with the decider being played at the German city's 31,500-seater MSV Arena, there is still one duty left to perform before they can lift the trophy.

Vow
"I'm happy today," said Grings, now only two goals off equalling the single-season competition record tally of 14 set in 2004/05 by then Potsdam striker Conny Pohlers and already equalled this term by former Valur Reykjavík striker Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir. "It was great performance of the whole team," Grings added. "It seems that the UEFA Cup is over as a competition now. [But] we promise our fans in Duisburg that we will take it seriously and give our all in the second leg. We will try to win the return for the fans and also for the records as we still have not lost one match in the tournament. I think that we were at the highest level today and that's why the result was right."

New high
Zvezda did have their moments early in the second half when they only trailed 1-0. However, there was no way past the visitors and their 24-year-old Germany defender Annike Krahn, who last week agreed a new deal for the 2009/10 season, in which it seems certain that Duisburg will be competing in the new UEFA Women's Champions League as European titleholders. "I think it was our best match in the competition and we never believed that we can win with such a tremendous scoreline. We are looking forward to the second leg and hope for a big football party with our fans."

Dream success
While Grings and Krahn have spent their entire senior careers with Duisburg, Belgium captain Femke Maes only joined in the winter from Swedish outfit Djurgårdens IF. "When I came to Duisburg I could never have believed I could achieve such success with the team," said Maes, who scored the first-half goal and also added the fourth. "It is almost certain that we will win the UEFA Cup and after that we are looking forward to wining the German Cup in Berlin [against Potsdam on 30 May]."