Potsdam and Lyon in final again

Last season's first UEFA Women's Champions League final will be repeated at Craven Cottage as Olympique Lyonnais challenge holders 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam for the title.

Previous meetings
• Potsdam emerged as champions on 20 May 2010 at the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez in Getafe, winning 7-6 on penalties after 120 goalless minutes. Turbine goalkeeper Anna Felicitas Sarholz, then 17, had been the hero in a semi-final shoot-out with German rivals FCR 2001 Duisburg and in the decider – Potsdam having been unsuccessful with two penalties – saved from Amandine Henry and Isabell Herlovsen and then converted herself before Élodie Thomis put Lyon's ninth penalty against the crossbar.

• The full lineups were:
Lyon: Bouhaddi, Renard, Stensland (Kaci 70), Georges, Nécib (Herlovsen 90), Cruz Trana (Simone 105), Thomis, Franco, Dickenmann, Henry, Rybeck.
Potsdam: Sarholz, Peter, Henning, Wich (Nagasato 66), Bajramaj, Zietz, Odebrecht, Schmidt, Kemme (Schröder 106), Kessler (I Kerschowski 66), Mittag.

Match background
• Last year's win was Potsdam's second title having lifted the UEFA Women's Cup in 2004/05 before losing the following final to 1. FFC Frankfurt.

• Potsdam are hoping to equal the record of Frankfurt, who won  European titles in 2001/02, 2005/06 and 2008/09.

• This is Potsdam's fourth final, still one behind Umeå IK's record of five – Anna Paulson playing in all of those.

• Last season Lyon were the first French finalists having reached the semis in their initial entries of 2007/08 and 2008/09.

• Potsdam coach Bernd Schröder and players Jennifer Zietz, Viola Odebrecht and Anja Mittag were all involved in the 2005 final, when they faced Djurgården/Älvsjö. Mittag scored the second goal in the first leg as they won 2-0 in Stockholm and 3-1 at home.

• Fatmire Bajramaj was part of the FCR 2001 Duisburg team that won the last UEFA Women's Cup in 2008/09, beating Zvezda-2005 6-0 away and drawing 1-1 at home. She scored in the first leg and also started the second match before moving to Potsdam, who Bajramaj leaves for Frankfurt following this final. Corina Schröder was also in the Duisburg squad that season and moved to Potsdam with Bajramaj.

• Bernd Schröder took charge of Potsdam in 1971 and has remained at the helm ever since, except between 1992 and 1997 when he was club president. Last year he became the oldest coach to win the competition aged 68 years 302 days.

• He will take charge of a record 41st UEFA women's club competition game in the final having so far masterminded 30 wins, five draws and five losses.

• Should Potsdam win, Schröder would become the first coach to take the title three times. Zietz, Mittag and Bajramaj, by reaching the same tally, would equal the record of Katrin Kliehm, Tina Wunderlich and Birgit Prinz, who played in all of Frankfurt's triumphs.

• If Zietz played in the final it would be her 41st competition appearance, putting her equal eighth on the all-time list with Vira Dyatel and Rachel Yankey.

• If Mittag scores in the final she would become only the sixth player to register 30 UEFA women's club competition goals after Hanna Ljungberg (39), Inka Grings (34), Conny Pohlers (34), Margrét Lára Vidarsdóttir (34), Nina Burger (32) and Marta (30).

• This is the second final to be played in England. In 2007 Arsenal LFC drew 0-0 with Umeå at their Meadow Park home in Borehamwood for a 1-0 aggregate triumph – the only victory so far by a team not from Germany or Sweden.

• Germany are indeed the dominant nation with six wins from the previous nine seasons of competition, ahead of Sweden (2, both Umeå) and England (1). Only the 2003 and 2007 finals did not feature a German team.

• Potsdam have played five previous fixtures against French clubs including last year's final. They overcame FCF Juvisy-Essonne (3-0 away, 6-2 home) in the quarter-finals in March to take their overall record to W3 D2 L0 – having not conceded before the second leg against Juvisy.

• Patrice Lair, appointed Lyon coach after last year's final, was in charge of Montpellier Hérault SC in their 0-0 second qualifying round group draw at home to Potsdam in 2005/06, a result that took both teams through. Current Lyon players Sonia Bompastor, Camille Abily and Élodie Thomis were in Lair's side; Montpellier were to miss out on a final against Potsdam after losing to Frankfurt on away goals in the last four.

• Prior to last year's final, Lyon's only experience against German opposition was their 2008/09 semi-final against Duisburg, drawing 1-1 at home and losing 3-1 away. Bajramaj played in both legs of that tie as well as their 2010 meeting with Potsdam.

• Last year's final produced only the fourth penalty shoot-out in the competition's history, Potsdam also having won the third in the previous round against Duisburg.

• Both these sides have already retained their domestic titles – Lyon winning their fifth in a row and Potsdam's their third straight victory. They therefore will both enter next season's competition in the round of 32 regardless of the final result. Potsdam will have an extra incentive as the final will be played in Munich on 17 May 2012.