Arsenal hope for perfect week

On Tuesday Arsenal FC overcame a 2-1 deficit at home to progress in the UEFA Champions League. Arsenal LFC manager Laura Harvey is hoping her side can do the same on Sunday as they trail FCR 2001 Duisburg going into the second leg of their UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final.

Titleholders Duisburg led Arsenal 2-0 midway through the second half in Germany on Wednesday before Inka Grings, who had opened the scoring, put through her own goal. It was Harvey's first European game in charge of the 2006/07 UEFA Women's Cup winners and despite the absence of their competition top scorer, Kim Little, through suspension, the manager declared: "On Tuesday night the men were able to turn over a 2-1 deficit and win 5-0. Let's hope we can do the same."

Arsenal are playing the match in Bishop's Stortford rather than their usual Borehamwood home. In their only previous European game there they beat Levante UD 2-1 in 2002/03 and Harvey has been given hope by their first-leg performance at the MSV Arena. "The tie is still in the balance but the fact that we scored an away goal is big," she said. "We've made our chances better by staying in the game. We played a much better second half than the first, when we were never really in the game. I liked the way we put pressure on them after the interval."

Duisburg, unbeaten in the Frauen-Bundesliga this season, have mixed feelings about their 2-1 lead. Coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg, who expects Arsenal to play a much more attacking game in the return, said: "Our most important goal was to win. We achieved that, if only just. Now we want to pick up where we left off after 60 minutes of the first leg."

Germany midfielder Simone Laudehr was substituted at half-time on Wednesday due to recurring injury problems and is a doubt for the match, though she has travelled. Meanwhile, goalkeeper Ursula Holl, beaten only by her team-mate Grings in the first leg, joked: "That's the way our goalscorer Inka is! If she heads the ball towards the goal, it goes in. In London she will score again at the other end of the pitch and get us into the semi-finals." If they make it, Duisburg are likely to play domestic rivals 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam, who will defend a 5-0 lead at Røa IL on Wednesday.