Europa League Story: Fulham

by Luke Judge on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 | No Comments

When Fulham survived on the last day of the season in 2008, they didn’t know what an adventure they would go on in the seasons to follow. Roy Hodgson had amazingly kept the Cottagers up despite them being bottom at Christmas; only West Brom had ever stayed after being in that position on the 25th of December.

The next season they performed over expectations, finishing seventh, which meant a place in the new Europa League – something that only one year earlier they would only have dreamt of.

Their Europa League journey began in the third qualifying round with a two legged tie against Lithuanian champions FK Vetra. in the first leg away they won 3-0 with Bobby Zamora, Seol Ki-Hyeon, and Danny Murphy scoring the goals. at Craven Cottage they won with the same scoreline, making it a 6-0 aggregate victory. This time Dickson Etuhu and a double from US international Eddie Johnson sealed the win.

In the play-off round Fulham were drawn with Russian side Amkar Perm, who had finished fourth in the Russian Premier League. The first leg was held at Fulham, and 13,000 spectators turned up to see the Whites win 3-1 on the night with goals from Eddie Johnson, Clint Dempsey, and Bobby Zamora. Vitali Grishin scored the consolation for Amkar who had it all to do at home. in the second leg it was quiet until the last minute when the game sprung to life with a goal from Martin Kushev. Unfortunately for the Russians it wasn’t enough and Fulham went through to the group stages.

Fulham had to play Roma of Italy, FC Basle of Switzerland, and CSKA Sofia of Bulgaria. in their first match they traveled to Bulgaria to face Sofia. The tight game ended in a 1-1 draw, with Diomansy Kamara scoring for Fulham.

After the CSKA Sofia game they had two home games to enjoy. Roma and FC Basle were the visitors to the Cottage and they came away with two respectable results, a 1-0 win over FC Basle and a 1-1 draw with Roma. in the Basle match Danny Murphy scored a stunning goal from the edge of the box, which was a contender for goal of the month. against Roma a stoppage time goal from Andreolli denied Fulham the three points after a Brede Hangeland opener.

In the return game in Rome, Fulham lost 2-1 despite taking the lead through Diomansy Kamara. Ex-Liverpool left-back John Arne Riise and Fulham-player-to-be Stefano Okaka scored the goals for Roma.

Two wins in December against Basle and Sofia ensured a place in the next round. at home to Sofia Fulham won 1-0 with a Zoltan Gera goal. in Switzerland the Cottagers won 3-2; Bobby Zamora scored two goals and Gera scored the other. Basle strikers Alex Frei and Marco Streller made it hard watching for Fulham fans.

After a Europa League-free January, the Whites were back and had to get past last year’s UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk. not many people gave Fulham a chance. Winning 2-1 in London they had the advantage going into the second leg in Ukraine. A 1-1 draw meant Fulham had secured a place in the last 16. Brede Hangeland, Zoltan Gera, and Bobby Zamora were the goalscorers in the two ties.

An even harder challenge awaited: Juventus! The favorites had stars like Fabio Cannavaro, Diego, and David Trezeguet in their side – no wonder they were expected to win. when Juve won 3-1 in the first leg everyone wrote off Fulham, but they came back to prove everyone wrong once again. an astonishing 4-1 victory at Craven Cottage left fans wondering if they could go all the way.

How about the German champions? Could Fulham do it again? Well that looked very likely when they were 2-0 up with 15 minutes to go in the first leg after goals from Zamora and Duff against Wolfsburg. Sadly for Fulham fans, Wolfsburg got the vital away goal which could prove key in the second leg. unfortunately for Wolfsburg, Fulham managed to score within 21 seconds in the second leg. A stunning goal from Bobby Zamora was followed by constant bombardment from the Germans but with no success. Fulham had done it again!

Now they were two steps away from the final, with Hamburg standing in their way. Hodgson’s men prevented Hamburg from scoring in the first leg, although they did fail to score themselves. at 0-0, though, they had every chance in the second leg. when leg two did come around Fulham were well prepared and managed to win 2-1, with Simon Davies and Zoltan Gera cancelling out Mladen Petric’s brilliant free-kick.

They had done it! Fulham FC, a club which could now be playing in the Championship if it wasn’t for Hodgson’s heroics, had managed to reach a European final, a feat deemed impossible a few seasons back by Fulham fans.

Why stop there? Atletico Madrid are a good team, but Fulham had beaten Holders Shaktah, favorites Juventus, German champions Wolfsburg, and the final’s hosts Hamburg. Surely Atletico Madrid were in reach.

The final had kicked off and after thirty minutes there was a goal. Atletico had gone in front, with Diego Forlan showing why he’s rated so highly by slipping in Sergio Aguero’s scuffed shot.

Once again Fulham responded and not long after they were level. it seemed to take a long time for Fulham to score after Bobby Zamora decided against it, and the ball seemed to go everywhere before falling to Simon Davies whose powerful shot found its way into the back of the net.

The rest of the ninety minutes were played with end to end football, a similar theme in extra time. with four minutes of extra time remaining, though, Atletico got what they wanted. A cross went straight to Diego Forlan whose shot went in off Brede Hangeland. They had won it!

It was a sad way to end a tournament where Fulham had played so well. This season will be remembered as the one where Roy Hodgson guided little Fulham to the big time. it may also be remembered as the season where Bobby Zamora found some form, something he’d failed to do since scoring the goal to promote West Ham in 2005.

It was an excellent season for Fulham, but for many of their stars it’s time for the World Cup!

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