Football’s Greatest Goals No.9
Today’s goal comes from Fulham’s Clint Dempsey in the Europa League. It was the fourth goal for Fulham on a magical night at Craven Cottage, where Italian giants Juventus were beaten 4-1 on 18th March 2010.
Fulham had qualified for the Europa League after finishing seventh in the Premier League the previous season. It was only the second time that the club were playing in European football and their Europa League run was definitely a memorable one!
As the seventh placed Premier League team in 2008/09, Fulham started their Europa League campaign in the Third Qualifying Round. Vetra of Lithuania were up first and were comfortably beaten 6-0 on aggregate.
Russian side Amkar Perm were their opponents in the play-offs and Fulham beat them 3-2 on aggregate to qualify for the group stages. They were drawn in the same group as Italian giants AS Roma, Bulgaria’s CSKA Sofia and Swiss side FC Basel.
Fulham still qualified by finishing second from the group, two points behind Roma and two ahead of FC Basel. Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk were next and Fulham beat them 3-2 on aggregate to set up a tie with Juventus.
Juventus won the first leg 3-1 at their Stadio Delle Alpi home. The tie looked all but over after David Trezeguet scored after two minutes in the return leg at Craven Cottage. Bobby Zamora scored a few minutes later but it seemed as if this would just be a consolation goal, as Fulham still needed two goals to force Extra-Time.
Zoltan Gera scored on 39 minutes to give Fulham renewed hope before scoring a penalty four minutes into the second half to tie the game.
The aggregate score stayed level until eight minutes to go, when a moment of pure brilliance from Fulham’s American midfielder Clint Dempsey settled the tie and completed a remarkable comeback.
Dickson Etuhu flicked up a first-time ball to Dempsey after receiving the ball from the right wing. The American had his back to goal and moved free of his marker to take the ball.
With a nice take-down, Dempsey turned to his left and had a bit of space at the edge of the Juve box. He took another touch to steady himself, before turning to face the Juventus goal.
Spotting Antonio Chimenti, the 39 year old veteran Juventus goalkeeper, ever so slightly off his line, Dempsey chipped the ball from the edge of the box. The ball seemed to sail in slow motion through the South London air as it went over Chimenti before dropping under the bar and into the top corner of the net.
There seemed to be a moment where the 23,458 fans in the crowd fully realised what had happened before a loud roar filled the night air.
The chip was so precise and went down as one of the greatest goals in Fulham’s 141 year history.
After beating Juventus, Fulham beat German sides Wolfsburg and Hamburg to make it to the Final of the Europa League.
They faced Athletico Madrid but lost 2-1 after extra time in Hamburg. The Juventus tie would live longest in the memory and Clint Dempsey’s chip was the crowning moment of the tie.
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