Sarholz thrilled to take Potsdam through

Teenage goalkeeper Anna Felicitas Sarholz saved three shoot-out penalties to take 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam into the UEFA Women's Champions League final and admitted she was living on her nerves.

Potsdam beat German rivals FCR 2001 Duisburg 1-0 to cancel out the holders' first-leg lead, necessitating spot kicks. Sarholz, 17, denied experienced pair Inka Grings and Linda Bresonik to leave Turbine in control and with FCR needing to score to remain in contention, she saved Irini Ioannidou's effort to take Potsdam into the 20 May final in Getafe against Olympique Lyonnais or Umeå IK.

"I am happy, but I can't really describe my feelings at the moment," Sarholz said. "We had some problems getting into the game in the first half-hour, I don't know why. We wanted to push from the beginning and show our attacking game, but it only improved in the second half.

"I didn't think about the penalties beforehand, there is no system, it's just a spontaneous reaction and a matter of feeling to assess the body language of the player. But I have nothing against avoiding that kind of thrill and I hope my team-mates can do it without a shoot-out in Getafe."

Captain Jennifer Zietz added that the first-leg defeat did not dishearten Potsdam, with whom she won the former UEFA Women's Cup in 2004/05. "We weren't in a good position after the first leg, but we never lost our confidence, even if we had problems scoring against Duisburg in the German Cup semi-final [also lost 1-0] and the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. But we created opportunities last week, so we knew that we could make it."