Frankfurt 'full of fury'

Birgit Prinz and Renate Lingor are usually two friendly and quite reserved women. Ahead of 1. FFC Frankfurt's UEFA Women's Cup quarter-final second leg against Arsenal LFC, everything is different.

Disappointing draw
A disappointing 1-1 away draw in the first match is reason enough for the world-class duo to be angry, and willing to show in their home second leg on Saturday that the German champions are the same dominant outfit that claimed the inaugural European prize in 2001/02. "I am very glad that this second leg will be played only a week after the first match. So, we are still emotionally influenced and full of fury to get a better result this time", said Lingor. Prinz added: "They were extremely physical in London. But I can hit back, too."

Top-level fixture
Without any doubt, the meeting of Frankfurt and Arsenal is the highlight of this competition so far. For the first time in the history of the UEFA Women's Cup, a quarter-final is being broadcast live on TV in Germany. Frankfurt coach Jürgen Tritschoks said: "Everybody feels that this is a meeting between two sides belonging to Europe's cream. Both teams will need to be at their best to get to the last four".

Künzer ruled out
His side will be without international midfielder Nia Künzer, who had to be taken off in the first leg because of a knee injury and has undergone surgery. Additionally, defender Sarah Günther is doubtful due to the muscle problems the forced her to miss the trip to London. Tritschoks said of Arsenal: "We must pay special attention to Kelly Smith and Rachel Yankey and need to stop Arsenal bringing them into the play. We will not only defend as this is not our style. We always attack and this is what we will do on Saturday".

Dietrich enthusiastic
However, Frankfurt's general manager Siegfried Dietrich is just looking forward to the occasion. "We have the chance to add another chapter to our track record in European football in front of a great setting in the Stadion am Brentanobad," he said.

Akers hopeful
Arsenal manager Vic Akers, whose main absentee is striker Julie Fleeting, was happy with the performance last week as Lianne Sanderson struck in first half added time to cancel out Sandra Smisek's goal. Looking to Saturday, he told Arsenal's official website: "They still have to win the game. We will make it as hard as we can. We'll go there and tiger our way through. We'll see what comes out."