Duisburg rue slips against Potsdam

FCR 2001 Duisburg showed considerable spirit to equalise twice in the first half to draw the home leg of their UEFA Women's Champions League semi-final with holders 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam 2-2 on Saturday – but they are regretting the slips that allowed the visitors to lead.

"The two goals we conceded were gifts by us," said Duisburg captain Inka Grings, who cancelled out Isabel Kerschowski's opener after 32 minutes with her tournament-leading 13th strike of the campaign. "We don't really know if we should be happy or not," the striker added, before praising her Germany team-mate's fine free-kick for Potsdam: "I don't believe she will hit the ball like that again."

Alexandra Popp set up Grings's goal and then provided Jennifer Oster to make it 2-2 ten minutes later, in which time Yuki Nagasato had briefly restored Potsdam's lead after Anja Mittag had been allowed to retrieve a lost ball. "It was closely contested as always against Potsdam," Popp said. "We equalise, we go behind through a stupid goal again, then we equalise once more.

"We simply did not defend well enough in the box. There were five defenders against two Potsdam players and yet they scored. That is something we have to talk about. Now we have to win in Potsdam, we don't want to have to go to penalties again."

Popp was referring to last year's semi-final, when then champions Duisburg won 1-0 at home but lost by the same score in Potsdam and were ousted on spot kicks. The return is next Sunday, and Duisburg coach Marco Ketelaer believes there are some positives to a scoreline seemingly favouring Potsdam.

"Conceding twice is not the best thing, but I see it in a positive light," he said. "Last year, we won 1-0 and in our heads were already through to the final, then got a nasty surprise in Potsdam. As expected, Potsdam played a very physical game and we did not play the kind of football we had planned. In particular our final pass did not come through."

The coach also revealed that his plan to attack Potsdam's three-strong defence on the flanks did not fully work out. "It was a very intense match," Ketelaer said. "Facing a strong team in Potsdam, we employed two holding midfielders which thwarted our attacks a bit. We did not attack them down the wings as well as we wanted to."