Fulham manager Roy Hodgson has claimed it would be "downright foolish" for Fulham to believe their place in next month's Europa League final has already been secured.
Despite spending 17 hours on a bus to get to Hamburg, the Cottagers fought a defiant rearguard action to claim a 0-0 draw in the first leg of their semi-final clash at the Nordbank Arena.
It means a victory of any kind on home soil next week will be enough to take Fulham into the first European final in their history.
Yet despite the positive nature of the tie, Hodgson is remaining firmly entrenched in the reality of the situation.
"It would be worse than dangerous, it would be downright foolish," said Hodgson of the prospect of thinking victory had already been achieved.
"We are at half-time, and we have to play another 90 minute half.
"Not many people leave stadiums at half-time, or go for a cup of tea thinking the game has been won.
"There is a lot of football to be played and Hamburg are a very good team. If they score a goal next week the advantage passes to them.
"The tie is open but I am delighted about that because it is very easy to put yourself out of contention."
With their defence marshalled superbly by Brede Hangeland and Aaron Hughes, Fulham were successful in containing Hamburg for most of the evening, even though the hosts dominated possession.
The one negative was an Achilles injury suffered by star man Bobby Zamora that will certainly rule him out of Sunday's Barclays Premier League encounter with Everton and threatens his participation in the second leg next Thursday.
"Bobby has had this problem with his Achilles for some while," revealed Hodgson.
"He has missed one or two league games but he felt okay yesterday and we hope he would get through the game.
"But even in the first half he was struggling with it. The medical staff gave him the all-clear to start the second half but they warned me I might have to take him off.
"We have one week to deal with the problem. It is not a fresh injury so we hope a week gives us the chance to put it right because I would say he has no chance of being fit for Sunday."
The threat of being without their leading goalscorer inevitably brings a concern, especially as Fulham have hardly been free-scoring recently.
However, Hodgson is confident his team do know where the goal is.
"We have goals in this team," he said.
"We created one or two very dangerous moments tonight and the atmosphere at Craven Cottage next week will help us as well."
Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer admitted Fulham were affected by their long journey to Germany.
The Cottagers even had to train by the side of the autobahn when heavy traffic held them up.
But they still came away in a strong position, with a big slice of the credit going to Schwarzer for several outstanding saves.
"The trip was well documented, and we were a bit tired in the legs, but in the end it's a good performance," Schwarzer told ESPN.
"We've done fantastically well to limit them to so few chances and it's a really admirable performance that gives us hope for the return leg."
Asked if the players had managed to stretch their legs on the way over, Schwarzer joked: "We had three hours by the side of the motorway halfway through.
"It was tough, but you can do it if you get your mind right. In the last 15-20 minutes you get your head around the fact you are tired and you can still hold your shape.
"There were a few chances for us and we could have come away with a goal."
Hamburg coach Bruno Labbadia agreed with Hodgson's assessment of the tie, and claimed he expected Fulham to pack the midfield areas having watched their encounter with Wolfsburg in the previous round.
"As expected this was a very difficult game and as expected they played very defensively," he said.
"I was a little bit surprised they stayed back so much.
"Our problem was that we didn't quite get enough crosses in.
"We knew there wouldn't be a way through the middle, we saw that from the Wolfsburg game.
"All in all the game's in the balance and we can still achieve what we set out to do."