Roy Hodgson inspires Fulham to Europa League Final
Never mind Roy of the Rovers, the tale of Roy Hodgson and Fulham has proven even more gripping this season. The outcome of last night’s Europa League semi-final wouldn’t have looked out of place inside the famous British comic strip; but for the Cottagers, this wasn’t fantasy, this was very much a glorious reality.
At the end of the 1995/96 campaign, Fulham finished below the likes of Darlington, Barnet and Cambridge United in the basement division of the Football League. Now, just 14 years later, the west-Londoners have reached their first ever major European final, after a pulsating 2-1 victory over Hamburg.
The patronising term “little Fulham” should never be applied to them again.
It’s been a remarkable story, conducted in recent years by the astute Hodgson, who must now be a shoe-in for the Manager of the Year accolade. Having saved the club from relegation to the Championship on the final day of the season in May 2008, Hodgson has rebuilt Fulham, transforming them from relegation-candidates to Europa League finalists.
Before the former Inter Milan manager took charge at Craven Cottage, even he wouldn’t have dared to dream such a feat was plausible. Steadying the ship and retaining the club’s Premier League status were his primary aims. He managed both with aplomb.
Instead, Hodgson has taken Fulham to the next level. Throughout this European campaign, the Craven Cottage faithful have been treated to several stunning comebacks from their courageous players. Once again, they relied on another unlikely turnaround - this time to defeat Hamburg in dramatic fashion.
After conceding a potentially-catastrophic away goal in the first half, many lesser teams would have crumbled and struggled to fight their way back into the match. This was uncharted territory for Fulham. They could have been forgiven for freezing at this stage of the competition. Instead, they were merely sparked into action.
Mladen Petrić’s superb free-kick on the 22nd minute broke the deadlock for the visitors and provided Fulham with a major hurdle to overcome. It would have been a goal fit to win any European semi-final - a brilliant strike from fully 30-yards which flew past the despairing Fulham goalkeeper, Mark Schwarzer.
Fortunately for the Cottagers, they had been in this predicament on more than one occasion already during this historic European campaign.
Hamburg, who were competing for the first time with their new temporary manager, Ricardo Moniz, looked far better than the 5-1 hammering at the hands of Hoffenheim on Sunday suggested. The Germans appeared galvanized by the switch, and continued to press Fulham for the second goal which would have surely killed off their English counterparts.
The hosts’ defence, though, remained resolute, and they eventually began to regroup and assert their own dominance on the match.
After the interval, as the clock ticked down, Fulham still needed to find two goals from somewhere. Bobby Zamora, who was passed fit to start the match, struggled to make an impact at the head of the Cottagers’ attack and was hauled off with half an hour left to play for USA international Clint Dempsey.
After providing the memorable winner against Juventus in the Round of 16, Hodgson had to make the change. The sign of a good manager is one that is proactive rather than reactive, and the 62-year-old boss duly responded to keep Fulham’s Europa League dream alive.
With 20 minutes left on the clock, following several agonising near-misses, the home crowd finally witnessed the moment they were praying for. However, the inspiration didn’t come from Dempsey; it came from a moment of individual class from 30-year-old midfielder, Simon Davies.
A perfectly-weighted ball from captain Danny Murphy found the Welshman inside the box, who took the ball expertly in his stride, juggled it past the bamboozled Guy Demel, and then slotted the ball past Frank Rost in the Hamburg goal. Cue delirium from all four corners of the Cottage. Their players were flying with momentum, the place was rocking, and another sensational comeback was imminent.
It wouldn’t have been a Europa League match involving Fulham without a dramatic late goal. The club’s Hungarian midfielder, Zoltan Gera, was the man to provide it. With less than 15 minutes of the match remaining, Gera pounced on a loose-ball around the crowded Hamburg six-yard box to poke in the most important goal of his career and complete yet another miraculous turnaround in the process.
The 25,000 packed inside the cosy west-London ground had never seen anything quite like this before. After surviving a late scare from former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, referee Cüneyt Çakır blew his whistle for the final time to send everyone associated with the club into raptures.
Fulham will now compete for their first ever major European trophy, next month at Hamburg’s home stadium, against Spain’s Atlético Madrid in the showpiece final.
"It's been a wonderful journey that I'm really proud of," a delighted Hodgson said after the match.
For Fulham, lifting the Europa League trophy may not even be their most formidable task over the forthcoming weeks. Keeping hold of their first-class manager could well be, instead.
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