Scott 5Fulham Fairytale Cut Short
May 13th 2010 13:00
This morning (AEST) saw the UEFA Europa League final take place between Atletico Madrid of Spain and Fulham of England.
Both teams had a very strange path to the final. Atletico Madrid came in as one of the 3rd placed teams from the Champions League and until the final had only won 2 matches in the knockout stages relying on away goals to get past the likes of Liverpool, Valencia and Sporting Lisbon.
As for Fulham, their path to the final kicked off on July 30, 2009 and had taken in 18 matches all over Europe including famous results against Juventus, Hamburg and Shakhtar Donetsk. Both teams were seeing their seasons come to an end here at the HSH Nordsbank Arena in Hamburg.
So the game kicked off and it took 12 minutes for the firt clear chance to be created and it was Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid who fired a low shot across goal and saw it clip the upright. Simon Davies, Fulham's most consistent threat saw a volley well saved by Atletico's De Gea in the 20th minute.
In the 31st minute after several minutes of domination, Atletico finally got the goal they deserved. It all started from a Konchesky error and the ball passed through Reyes, Simao and Aguero before Diego Forlan finally tucked it away into the net for Madrid.
Fulham's response was immediate and it was Zamora in the thick of it as persistence finally saw a Damien Duff cross and that man, Simon Davies smashing a volley into the net to make it 1-1.
Atletico finished off the half with complete dominance securing 4 corners in a row and forcing a couple of saves from keeper Mark Schwarzer but not getting any extra reward.
The second-half didn't have too much to write about with both sides having their momentum swings and the mandatory subs that you'd expect. There were a couple of chances for Fulham's Duff and Davies and Madrid manager Quique Sanchez Flores was clearly rattled and animated looking for the winner. None came so we were off to extra-time.
Extra-time saw Atletico Madrid dominate the chances with Forlan forcing a save from Schwarzer from a narrow angle and then a hearts in mouth scramble which saw Aguero somehow put the ball into the side netting following good work from Forlan and a mishit from Salvio.
The moment which decided the game came in the 117th minute when Aguero chased a long ball, controlled it and managed to get a cross into Diego Forlan who flicked it off the defender's legs and past Schwarzer for what proved to be the winner.
So Atletico Madrid despite an abysmal season in the Primera Liga, somehow win the Europa League and as for Fulham, they were not disgraced in defeat but Roy Hodgson still couldn't overcome his finals jinx (having been Inter manager and seeing them lose to Schalke in the UEFA Cup Final 12-13 years ago).
The Fulham fairytale is over but my god, what a ride it proved to be.
At the end of the day though, Atletico had players the calibre of Diego Forlan, Jose Antonio Reyes and Sergio Aguero and it was this quality that proved to be the difference in the end.
Both teams had a very strange path to the final. Atletico Madrid came in as one of the 3rd placed teams from the Champions League and until the final had only won 2 matches in the knockout stages relying on away goals to get past the likes of Liverpool, Valencia and Sporting Lisbon.
As for Fulham, their path to the final kicked off on July 30, 2009 and had taken in 18 matches all over Europe including famous results against Juventus, Hamburg and Shakhtar Donetsk. Both teams were seeing their seasons come to an end here at the HSH Nordsbank Arena in Hamburg.
So the game kicked off and it took 12 minutes for the firt clear chance to be created and it was Diego Forlan of Atletico Madrid who fired a low shot across goal and saw it clip the upright. Simon Davies, Fulham's most consistent threat saw a volley well saved by Atletico's De Gea in the 20th minute.
In the 31st minute after several minutes of domination, Atletico finally got the goal they deserved. It all started from a Konchesky error and the ball passed through Reyes, Simao and Aguero before Diego Forlan finally tucked it away into the net for Madrid.
Fulham's response was immediate and it was Zamora in the thick of it as persistence finally saw a Damien Duff cross and that man, Simon Davies smashing a volley into the net to make it 1-1.
Atletico finished off the half with complete dominance securing 4 corners in a row and forcing a couple of saves from keeper Mark Schwarzer but not getting any extra reward.
The second-half didn't have too much to write about with both sides having their momentum swings and the mandatory subs that you'd expect. There were a couple of chances for Fulham's Duff and Davies and Madrid manager Quique Sanchez Flores was clearly rattled and animated looking for the winner. None came so we were off to extra-time.
Extra-time saw Atletico Madrid dominate the chances with Forlan forcing a save from Schwarzer from a narrow angle and then a hearts in mouth scramble which saw Aguero somehow put the ball into the side netting following good work from Forlan and a mishit from Salvio.
The moment which decided the game came in the 117th minute when Aguero chased a long ball, controlled it and managed to get a cross into Diego Forlan who flicked it off the defender's legs and past Schwarzer for what proved to be the winner.
So Atletico Madrid despite an abysmal season in the Primera Liga, somehow win the Europa League and as for Fulham, they were not disgraced in defeat but Roy Hodgson still couldn't overcome his finals jinx (having been Inter manager and seeing them lose to Schalke in the UEFA Cup Final 12-13 years ago).
The Fulham fairytale is over but my god, what a ride it proved to be.
At the end of the day though, Atletico had players the calibre of Diego Forlan, Jose Antonio Reyes and Sergio Aguero and it was this quality that proved to be the difference in the end.
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