On This Day – 18th March
3-1 down from the away leg in Italy against a strong Juventus team. Surely Fulham were about to be knocked out of the Europa League on this day in 2010?
The Fulham fans that made up the majority of the 23,458 crowd at Craven Cottage that night must have been thinking that it would just be nice to be there to see their side play the European giants.
Juve had won the Serie A title 27 times and twice lifted the European Cup in their history. The last time Juve had won the Champions League was in 1995/96, the season Fulham finished 17th in the fourth tier of English football.
Juventus got off to the best possible start, with David Trezeguet scoring inside the first few minutes. Fulham now needed to keep a clean sheet and score three goals to take the game to Extra Time, or four goals to win the match.
Bobby Zamora equalised in the 9th minute, chesting down a cross before firing low into the bottom corner. The home side were then helped further when Juve’s fearsome defender Fabio Cannavaro was given a red card after 26 minutes. Only two goals needed and Juve down to ten men. The Fulham fans dared to believe!
Six minutes before the break, Fulham’s Zoltan Gera scored with a tap-in from close range. Only one goal was now needed to take the game to Extra Time and the Fulham fans urged their team on.
Fulham were awarded a penalty just two minutes after the restart after Damien Duff’s attempted cross struck a Juve defender’s arm. The referee pointed straight to the spot and Zoltan Gera made no mistaake from the spot for his second goal of the game.
Clint Dempsey won the game for Fulham in the 82nd minute with a perfect chip from the edge of the box. I wrote about this goal in the ‘Football’s Greatest Goals’ series and you can read about it by clicking here.
The victory put Fulham into the Semi Final, where they beat Hamburg 2-1 on aggregate. They returned to Hamburg for the Final against Athletico Madrid, but lost 2-1 after Extra Time. The Juventus game was the one match that their fans remember most and was definitely unexpected!
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