Roy Hodgson’s Fulham team wrote themselves into the history books with an unbelievable comeback against Juventus.
3-1 down from the First Leg a week earlier in Turin, things were even worse inside two minutes when David Trezeguet struck at the Hammersmith End.
But the never-say-die spirit of the squad was present in spades, and Bobby Zamora restored parity on the night with some fine centre forward play seven minutes later.
He’d outmuscled Fabio Cannavaro for the equaliser, and the 2006 Ballon D’Or winner’s night soon got worse when he was sent off for bringing down Zoltan Gera, who then got himself on the scoresheet with a close range finish.
The same man netted from the penalty spot early in the second half to bring the aggregate score level, before Clint Dempsey stepped off the bench to score one of the most incredible goals the Cottage had ever witnessed to secure a 5-4 victory for the Whites.
Hodgson would have been keen to see his side begin on the front foot considering the task ahead of them, but they made the worst possible start. Trezeguet’s attempted overhead kick completely missed Hasan Salihamidzic’s cross, but the Frenchman got to his feet quickly enough to place an accurate low strike beyond the reach of Mark Schwarzer after we failed to clear the loose ball.
Lesser teams could have crumbled at this point, but Fulham hit back emphatically soon after. Paul Konchesky pinged a ball in from the left onto the chest of Zamora – who shrugged off Cannavaro as if he wasn’t there – who then slammed a right footed effort beyond Juventus goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti.
Cannavaro had been using every single one of his years of experience to try and unsettle the home side with some physical play, but he was found out on 27 minutes when he brought down Gera as he raced through on goal after being put in by Zamora. The visitors argued that Fabio Grosso was deep enough to cover, but the referee was not interested and Italy’s World Cup winning captain was off.
Zamora almost took full advantage from the free-kick. His effort was brilliantly struck but a little too close to Chimenti, who parried away.
Craven Cottage was tingling with anticipation now, a feeling which grew when we hit the woodwork twice in a matter of seconds. First when Simon Davies’ free-kick thwacked the crossbar before being cleared, and then when Dickson Etuhu headed against the post from Damien Duff’s subsequent corner.
But the second goal was imminent. Konchesky and Zamora linked up again, ending with the latter dinking a ball over the top for Davies to run onto. He caught it right at the byline and cut back to Gera, who opened his body up and tucked the ball high into the net.
The message at half-time would have been ‘more of the same’ from Hodgson, and so he would have been delighted to see Duff win a penalty inside three minutes of the restart. Brazil international Diego the guilty party for handball.
With regular taker Danny Murphy suspended, Gera stepped up and dispatched a brilliant spot-kick. He sent Chimenti the wrong way, but it was struck with such ferocity that it’s unlikely the veteran would have reached it anyway.
Things were now level at 4-4 on aggregate, but Hodgson sensed blood. Just after Davies had drawn another save from Chimenti, he sent on attacker Clint Dempsey – recently back from injury – for right-back Stephen Kelly, in a move that saw Davies dropped into defence.
That did little to restrict Davies’ attacking instincts, though, with his cross finding the head of Dempsey, but the substitute’s effort was saved by Chimenti.
Gera called Chimenti into action again on 80 minutes, but there was absolutely nothing the 39-year-old do after that to deny Dempsey. After collecting a pass from Etuhu, the American advanced a couple of steps towards the corner of the box before chipping a sublime shot over the goalkeeper and just under the angle of post and crossbar on the far side. It seemed to happen in slow motion, and the home crowd needed a second to register what had happened before collectively going bananas.
A second away goal from Juventus would have spoiled the party but their only other contribution was another red card when Jonathan Zebina was given his marching orders for kicking out at Duff.
And so the Whites saw out the remaining moments relatively comfortably to book their place in the UEFA Europa League Quarter-Finals, after possibly the most fantastic match in our history.