Heroic Fulham thrash Juventus and stun Europe

Fulham 4 Juventus 1 (5-4 on aggregate). Has there ever been a night like it in Fulham's 131-year history? No. And there probably hasn't been a night like it for Juventus, either, though for different reasons. Down the years the Italian outfit have won two Champions League titles, one UEFA Cup Winners Cup and three UEFA Cups. Yet last night they somehow let slip a 3-1 first-leg lead against Fulham, a side playing in Europe for only the second season.

It was one of the most extraordinary matches in the history of European football, and a comeback every bit as stirring as the one Liverpool staged against AC Milan in the 2005 Champions League Final.

Few people had given Fulham much hope of turning round the deficit going into the match, and when David Trezeguet hammered home Diego's cross in the third minute only the most one-eyed Fulham fans in the 25,000-strong crowd believed success was still possible.  

But seven minutes after Juventus had made it 4-1 on aggregate the Cottagers pulled one back. Bobby Zamora chested down Paul Konchesky's curling cross and unleashed a piledriver with his right foot that flew past Antonio Chimenti into the back of the visitors' net.

One apiece became 2-1 to the Londoners six minutes before the break when a neat flick from the impressive Zamora allowed Simon Davies to tee up Zoltan Gera, and the Hungarian's close range effort gave Fulham fans real hope. The goal, coming on the back of a harsh red card for Fabio Cannavaro after his collision with Zoltan Gera, sent Juventus into the break with furrowed brows. And the furrows grew deeper four minutes into the second half when Diego handled the ball in the area. Referee Bjorn Kuipers pointed to the spot and up stepped Gera to send the ball past Chimenti's left hand.

With the scores level on aggregate both sides pressed for the decisive goal in the final quarter. A sublime long ball from Diego gave Trezeguet the chance to go for glory but the Frenchman fluffed his volley. Fulham meanwhile had claims for a second penalty rebuffed by Kuipers.

Then in the 71st minute came a moment of tactical inspiration from Fulham boss Roy Hodgson. Hauling off defender Stephen Kelly he sent on Texan striker Clint Dempsey with a simple brief: make Fulham's day, and he did. Having already forced a sharp save from Chimenti with a header, Dempsey produced a goal that will go down in Fulham folklore.

There were eight minutes left on the clock when Dempsey took a pass from Dickson Etuhu on the edge of the Juventus box. The Italian defence were slow to close down the American, who glanced up before chipping the ball up and over the back four, and beyond the reach of the retreating Chimenti into the top right-hand corner of the visitors' goal. The crowd really did go wild, and so did Juventus. Jonathan Zebina saw red in the final minutes for aiming a kick at Duff and when the whistle went the Italians wore the look of shellshocked men. The victory was all the sweeter for Fulham coming just 24 hours after their west London rivals, Chelsea, crashed out of the Champions League against Inter Milan. At least this corner of the capital has one side left in Europe.

Dempsey later confessed there was not much to his sensational strike, saying: "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."

As for Roy Hodgson, the night was one of the greatest of his managerial career. "Beating Juventus is something special on all occasions," he smiled, before going on to say he'd remained confident of success even whenFulham went one down early on. "We tried to give them a bigger lift by conceding a goal after one minute 40 seconds or something but I was really impressed by how the players put that behind them and carried on playing...it was a fantastic team performance." ·