Brede Hangeland was one of the many heroes on Thursday evening as he put in a colossal display in defence, and scored the crucial goal, as Fulham progressed to the last 16 of the UEFA Europa League at the expense of reigning UEFA Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk.
“It feels fantastic. It’s a really, really great achievement for this club and I’m proud to be a part of it,” he beamed after the historic aggregate victory.
“It proves how far we’ve come as a team since Roy Hodgson became Manager. We’ve beaten one of the top teams in Europe and we’ve achieved that by trusting in the way we play and working hard.
“It’s been a fantastic team effort so we’re really proud of ourselves.”
After a successful first leg a week earlier, the Whites travelled to Donetsk with a 2-1 lead, but with the hosts’ imperious home record and their characteristic attacking outlook, Brede and his team-mates knew that they would have to fight to prevent their hosts from scoring the single goal that would send them through on the away goals rule.
However, after an initial Shakhtar onslaught, Hangeland gave his team-mates some vital breathing space when he nodded a crossed Damien Duff free-kick from the left past Pyatov, grabbing an away goal of our own and clinching a two-goal lead in the tie.
“We knew we had a good chance from set pieces because when you’re a team of tricky Brazilians, you can’t be big giants at the same time!” He said of his well-timed strike.
“When I looked at my marker I thought, 'If the ball comes in at the right angle I have a good chance.' We’d said to Duffer to be sure to put all the crosses into the box instead of playing them short and he did that, so as it came in all I had to do was flick it into the corner.
“It turned out to be a very important goal, but I’m not too bothered about who scores the goals as long as we get the result we need.
“If we’re honest, it was against the run of play. It felt like we were defending for 90 minutes today, but having said that, we did that well and restricted them to long shots, which Mark did really well to save."
However, Shakhtar’s incessant pressure did bring a goal with just over 20 minutes remaining, as Jadson slotted in a low shot after a typically stylish attacking sweep, setting up a tense and dramatic finale as the Ukrainian side threw everything forward.
Skipper Danny Murphy’s dismissal heaped further pressure on Roy Hodgson’s charges, but they held on firmly to their aggregate advantage, eventually seeing the game out.
“Normally you have a glance at the stadium clock every now and then, but there wasn’t a chance for that, it was really hectic,” reflected Hangeland.
“I remember speaking to Hughesy with about five minutes to go and agreeing that if we managed to get through it, it would be a really big achievement.
“But we all knew what was ahead of us if we managed to hold on, and we kept focused to do that. So when they finally blew the final whistle it was a good feeling.”
The result that will surely go down as one of the greatest in the history of Fulham Football Club secured progression to the final 16 of the UEFA Europa League, setting up another great European occasion against Italian giants Juventus.
“It’s certainly great to be a part of nights like this,” concluded Brede. “Who would have thought this would be possible with this club a while back?
“But it just proves that with hard work and a group of players and coaching staff pulling in the same direction, you can achieve things like this. Now we look forward to playing Juventus at the Cottage, as I’m sure the fans do too.”
