History boys: Fulham celebrate their historic semi-final win at Craven Cottage as Hamburg are left dejected in defeatFulham manager Roy Hodgson paid tribute to his players after they pulled off 'a major piece of history' to reach the Europa League final.
With 21 minutes left of their semi-final second leg against Hamburg at Craven Cottage, Hodgson's men were trailing to Mladen Petric's stunning first-half free-kick.
However, Simon Davies produced his own moment of brilliance to bring the scores level on the night and Zoltan Gera poked home a second goal seven minutes later to take Fulham to their first European final.
Hodgson said: 'After going a goal down against the run of play, I think we've made a major piece of history here tonight. That atmosphere is something I think we'll all remember for a long time.'
Fulham will return to Hamburg for the final on May 12, when they will face Atletico Madrid, who beat Liverpool on away goals with an extra-time strike by Diego Forlan.
Full of it: Fulham boss Roy Hodgson revels in victory with his captain Danny Murphy as they can look forward to the final in Hamburg on May 12The former Manchester United forward played down his played down his vital contribution when he struck towards the end of the first period of extra time at Anfield after Alberto Aquilani and Yossi Benayoun had given the Reds a two-goal lead in the absence of injured star striker Fernando Torres.
The away goal was enough to send Atletico through to the final against Fulham in Hamburg and Forlan said: 'We needed to score - it doesn't matter who is going to score.
Kop that! Diego Forlan celebrates his decisive strike to send Atletico Madrid into the final courtesy of the away goals rule'It was a really difficult game. We knew they would come after us. They played really well in the first half and they deserved that goal.
'Then they got the second goal and we knew we needed to score one goal. And that was it.'
Down and out: Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard is left to contemplate another night of misery at Anfield this seasonForlan admitted he had feared the worst after Benayoun put Liverpool ahead, saying: 'Yes, of course. They are a strong team, they know how to win."
As for facing Fulham, he added: 'Every team is a difficult game.'
source: dailymail
