Night to remember: The scoreboard at Craven
Cottage
Fulham
4 - 1
Juventus 
2ND LEG: 5 - 4 (Agg)
Red
Cards
Fabio Cannavaro (27)
Jonathan Zebina (90)
Fulham pulled off a sensational
comeback to stun Juventus and reach a European quarter-final for
the first time after an extraordinary evening at Craven
Cottage.
Trailing 3-1 from the first leg, Roy Hodgson's side achieved the
seemingly impossible to win 4-1 and clinch a 5-4 aggregate Europa
League success.
David Trezeguet looked to have ended Fulham's chances
with an early goal before Bobby Zamora quickly level led, Zoltan
Gera struck twice and Clint Dempsey's superb chip sealed victory.
The Italian giants finished with nine men after Fabio Cannavaro and
Jonathan Zebina were sent off.
'I'm on top of the world,' beamed 62-year-old Hodgson. 'I
don't know if it is the biggest night in the club's history but it
must come close.'
Hodgson saluted the character of his players after coming back
to steal the unlikely win. 'I was very impressed with how they came
back,' said the former Inter Milan boss.
'We couldn't have had a worse start. 'We went behind to a
simple goal which made an uphill task even steeper but even from
that point the team started to play well and the crowd got behind
us and even at half time I thought we were looking good to win the
game. 'It was never going to be impossible to turn it
around and luckily that has happened.'
In truth Fulham could have beaten Juve's veteran goalkeeper
Antonio Chimenti six or seven times with Dickson Etuhu and Simon
Davies hitting the woodwork in the second half. But it
was Clint Dempsey who will go down in Fulham folklore as the man
who put the Cottagers through.
The substitute sealed the victory with a spectacular chip that
eluded Chimenti in the 83rd minute to send the capacity crowd at
Craven Cottage wild.
Did you hear about the Zoltans? Fulham fan Hugh
Grant texts the score to his celebrity mates
Dempsey told ESPN: 'I just thought, what the heck and
tried to put it in the far post and it went in. 'Nine
times out of 10 you won't make it but sometimes you've got to take
a risk. It's great, we showed a lot of heart and character to fight
back but we are in the next round.'
Hodgson will find out who his team will face next in the
competition when the draw for the quarter finals is made in Nyon at
2pm tomorrow.
Until then Hodgson can sit back and take stock of what has been
a remarkable European campaign which began with a 3-0 qualifying
win over Lithuanian minnows Vetra in July.
'To get to the quarter final of this competition is extremely
good because we played our first match at the end of July and we
will still be playing in this competition next month.
'When I reached the final (as manager of Inter Milan) our
European campaign was nowhere near as long as this one has been, I
think it encompassed 12 games including a two-legged final.
Juve been framed: Clint Dempsey scores with a
clever chip over keeper Antonio Chimenti
Up and away: Fulham's Zoltan Gera celebrates his
penalty goal against Juventus
'By the end of the next match we'll have played 16 games
now and I think it is a remarkable achievement that the boys have
done so well.'
Juventus manager Alberto Zaccheroni, meanwhile, said Cannavaro's
red card, which was issued for pulling back Gera, turned the game
.
'We are disappointed with the result,' he said. 'We
feared Fulham and they played well but as soon as we went down to
10 men we struggled.
'I have seen the replay of the incident and I think the referee
was too strict.'
