Lair lauds deserved champions Lyon

While the Olympique Lyonnais coach Patrice Lair could look back with more than a hint of pride at five days of football which yielded a French Cup triumph and a second successive UEFA Women's Champions League – achieved with a 2-0 victory against 1. FFC Frankfurt in Munich – his opposite number Sven Kahlert acknowldged it will be tough to rouse his side after back-to-back cup final setbacks. UEFA.com hears from both. 

Patrice Lair, Lyon coach
The start of the match was quite tough. Frankfurt tried to come back at us after we took the lead, but we scored the second goal quite quickly. We tried to get a third goal that would have made the win safe, and we had a few chances to do that but couldn’t take them but the turning point was the great chance that Frankfurt had just before half-time. Had they pulled a goal back, it would have made our lives a lot harder but 2-0 at half-time was a good position to be in.

The crowd was on Frankfurt’s side today, which made our lives quite hard – especially at the start – but the first goal made us more secure and we deserved to win.

The two [Women's Champions League] finals were both difficult games. Today was especially hard, in Germany in front of 50,000 fans, although there was also extra pressure on Frankfurt. We are very solid tactically. Potsdam were more of a physical team and Frankfurt are a more technical side; they were missing a few players and had they had them, they would have been tougher opponents.

It's always special for French clubs to win in Germany, the strongest country in terms of women's football in Europe. To win this trophy twice in a row ... I would have liked the profile of women's football to be the same in France as it is [in Germany] but that's not the case. We're behind them in everything – even in terms of the league – so it's extra nice for a French club to win this competition. Germany have the best clubs and the best national team, but I still hope we can win this competition for a third year running.

I've always said that the hardest part of the job is not to get to the top, but to stay there. When you're European champions then everyone wants to beat you wherever you go. I think I surprised the girls before the game as I did something I never do: I kissed every one of them. It was to show that I was behind them. And it's true that I love them for the moments of pure joy they have given me for two years.

Sven Kahlert, Frankfurt coach
First of all congratulations to Lyon, they deserved to win the game and are deserved champions in 2012. I'd like to thank the team, the training staff and the management. It's been a varied but successful Champions League season. In the end we lost because of our lack of finishing. We made two major mistakes in first half, both were punished, but we didn't make the most of the one mistake they made. Even after that we were convinced we could get two goals back. Lyon are a class team, no doubt about it.

Everyone is very disappointed, a lot of players cried with disappointment because it's the second final in the space of a week we've lost. We have two league games left and it will be unbelievably difficult for our coaching staff [to rouse the players]. We still have a mathematical chance of second place [in the Frauen Bundesliga] and we'll have to find right words to get the team up to the level of performance they showed in the second half today.

I'm a bit speechless but it was an amazing setting today with 50,000 fans; unfortunately being part of it isn't the ultimate, you want to win these games.

It's a question for the future, whether Lyon will dominate, but no doubt they are a top team. They gel well and are very well-oiled as a team which has been together for a few years. You can see they had the automatism which we didn't. Everyone is chasing them, which will make the competition more interesting; unfortunately we couldn't catch them this time.

The team weren't up to it but as a coaching staff we haven't got them to play at a level we want them too. Analysis of this game is impossible at the moment, so soon after the game. To analyse the German Cup final and Champions League final will take time. There are things we need to change, like our tactics, being more flexible, improve our running ... but to start blaming the team would be wrong. It really has to fall on my shoulders but we'll keep on analysing and try to put things right.