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Fulham manager Roy Hodgson on top of the world

last updated Friday 19th March 2010, 12:22 AM
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson
     
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Fulham manager Roy Hodgson admitted to feeling "on top of the world" after watching his side knock Juventus out of the Europa League with an emphatic 4-1 thumping at Craven Cottage.

The Cottagers went into the match 3-1 down following an unconvincing display against the Serie A giants in Turin last week.

Fulham went behind in the second minute to a David Trezeguet strike but they somehow recovered to pull off a remarkable comeback courtesy of goals from Clint Dempsey, Bobby Zamora and a brace from Zoltan Gera.

The 5-4 aggregate win puts Fulham through to the last eight of the competition for the first time in their history and for Hodgson life can not get any better.

"I'm on top of the world," the 62-year-old beamed following the win.

"I don't know if it is the biggest night in the club's history but it must come close."

Trezeguet's second-minute strike looked to condemn Hodgson's side to defeat, but Juventus soon lost control of the tie and ended the game with nine men following the first half dismissal of Fabio Cannavaro and a late red for Jonathan Zebina.

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.

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.

"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."







































































Source Paul Hirst at PASport
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