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Deserving Frankfurt delighted to reach 'home final'

"It's something special to reach a Champions League final on German soil," said 1. FFC Frankfurt midfielder Kerstin Garefrekes after her side's semi-final defeat of Arsenal LFC.

Deserving Frankfurt delighted to reach 'home final'
Deserving Frankfurt delighted to reach 'home final' ©uefa.com 1998-2012. All rights reserved.

After helping her side overcome Arsenal LFC 4-1 on aggregate to reach their first UEFA Women's Champions League final 1. FFC Frankfurt midfielder Kerstin Garefrekes decribed the prospect of playing at Munich's Olympiastadion on 17 May as "something special", while defender Alex Scott, along with several team-mates, accepted the result was fair after being punished for "sloppy mistakes".

Kerstin Garefrekes, Frankfurt midfielder
It is something special to reach a Champions League final, especially as it will take place on German soil. We're glad we managed to go through and get the chance to play the final in Munich. We didn't give a lot away today and were strong in the tackle, which is why Arsenal weren't that dangerous. We worked hard as a team and deserved to win. We know our strengths and we didn't just want to hold on to our first-leg advantage. We are attack-minded, we can and always want to score.

Kim Kulig, Frankfurt midfielder
Arsenal are a very strong side, but we are strong too. I think we had the game under control and we deserved to reach the final. We gave a good team performance and Saskia Bartusiak was back organising the defense. We played well defensively and that was the key to our success. We're happy to play the final on German soil and I think we definitely have a chance of winning the title ‒ it doesn't matter whether it is Lyon or Potsdam.

Jessica Landström, Frankfurt forward
It feels great to win 2-0. We wanted to score today as well and not just focus on not conceding. You cannot play a game by only defending, we didn't have any plans just to defend.

Sven Kahlert, Frankfurt manager
Congratulations to Arsenal for being a strong opponent. We needed to give everything physically and I am happy that we reached the final. I was not pleased with our offensive performance in the first half, but it got better in the second half.

Alex Scott, Arsenal defender
Last week it was there for us to win the game, but today possession was not good enough and we made too many sloppy mistakes and they punished us and deserved to win today. At half-time we said, we would go out and score two goals, but then the game opened up and they punished us. We got to a semi-final, so you are pleased with that, but in our hearts we wanted to get to the final and we felt we had the squad to get there. When we play in away legs we need to be better in possession. You can't give away the ball that much at this level and we need to finish our chances.

Kim Little, Arsenal midfielder
The quality on the ball wasn't good enough. We played better in the first leg and not well enough today, Frankfurt deserved it over the two legs. We started well in the first leg, but didn't convert our chances into goals ‒ that's what has hurt us the most. We didn't concede for an hour today, but even in the first half we didn't create enough chances to score. We defended pretty well in the first leg and did OK today, but obviously our quality in the final third especially needs to be a lot better when we play at this level.

Rachel Yankey, Arsenal forward
It was not our day today, the better team won. We knew what we had to come here to get goals, but unfortunately we didn't do that. We tried and gave everything we had but it just wasn’t enough in the end. Today we weren't really good on the ball, their quality was a lot better than us.

Laura Harvey, Arsenal manager
We didn't play very well in the first half. In the second half the first goal was crucial. Last week it was our biggest disappointment, as we knew Frankfurt are very good at home. We thought that not winning the game last week was going to be hard for us. They were the better team today.

 

 

 

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