Fulham in Europe
Fulham are a member of the European Club Association having qualified three times for European Competition, qualifying for the Intertoto Cup after their inaugural season in the Premier League, and the Europa League twice, they played in the inaugural edition of the competition after their club-best seventh place finish in the 2008–09 Premier League season, and qualified again for the 2011–12 Europa League via England's Fair Play berth. Fulham are unbeaten at home in European competition, in twenty-three games, with a record of seventeen wins and six draws.
On 18 February 2010, Fulham's home unbeaten run in European competition stretched to thirteen games when they beat UEFA Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine 2–1 at Craven Cottage in the Europa League Round of 32 first leg, with goals from Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora. In Fulham's 46 games in all European competitions, (excluding the 2010 UEFA Europa League Final lost in extra-time) they have only lost seven of them (all away): 2–1 to Hertha, 1–0 to Amkar Perm, 2–1 to AS Roma (after two controversial sending-offs), 3–1 to Juventus, 1–0 to Dnipro, 1–0 to FC Twente and 1–0 to Wisla Krakow
After defeating the twenty-time Italian champions Juventus on 18 March, Fulham advanced to the quarterfinals against reigning German champions Wolfsburg. On 1 April, Fulham defeated Wolfsburg 2–1 in the first leg of the two-legged home-and-away series. Zamora and Damien Duff scored within five minutes of each other in the second half, while Wolfsburg defender Alexander Madlung scored two minutes from time to cut the deficit in half. One week later at Wolfsburg, Zamora struck again, this time in the first minute to give Fulham an overall 3–1 lead in the series. Wolfsburg were unable to overturn the two goal deficit, and Fulham advanced to the semi-finals of the Europa League. On 22 April, following a long coach trip due to flights being grounded because of the Icelandic volcano, Fulham attained a 0–0 draw against Hamburger SV in the first leg of their Europa League Semi-Final in Hamburg. On 29 April, they beat Hamburg 2–1 at Craven Cottage to secure a place in the final.
On 12 May, Fulham lost 2–1 after extra time to Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Europa League Final. Fulham went 1–0 down, though it ended 1–1 after ninety minutes thanks to a Davies equaliser to force extra time. Diego Forlán scored the winner on the 116th minute to clinch the game for the Spanish team.
Fulham qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League by virtue of the Fair Play league. They started their campaign in the first qualifying round, beating NSÍ Runavík, followed by a win over Crusaders in the Second qualifying round. A 3–1 aggregate win over Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk saw them into the group stages where they were drawn against FC Twente, Odense BK and Wisła Kraków in group K. They were knocked out of the tournament, when Odense BK equalised for a 2–2 draw in the very last second of the final group game, leaving Fulham stranded in third, with Krakow going through along with Twente in first.
| Fulham in Europe | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Competition | Round | Country | Club | Home Leg | Away Leg | Aggregate |
| 2002/03 | Intertoto Cup | Second Round | Haka | 0–0 | 1–1 | 1–1 | |
| Third Round | Egaleo | 1–0 | 1–1 | 2–1 | |||
| Semi Final | Sochaux | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | |||
| Final | Bologna | 3–1 | 2–2 | 5–3 | |||
| UEFA Cup | First Round | Hajduk Split | 2–2 | 1–0 | 3–2 | ||
| Second Round | Dinamo Zagreb | 2–1 | 3–0 | 5–1 | |||
| Third Round | Hertha Berlin | 0–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | |||
| 2009/10 | UEFA Europa League | Third Qualifying Round | Vėtra | 3–0 | 3–0 | 6–0 | |
| Play-off Round | Amkar Perm | 3–1 | 0–1 | 3–2 | |||
| Group E | Basel | 1–0 | 3–2 | 2nd | |||
| CSKA Sofia | 1–0 | 1–1 | |||||
| Roma | 1–1 | 1–2 | |||||
| Round of 32 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 2–1 | 1–1 | 3–2 | |||
| Round of 16 | Juventus | 4–1 | 1–3 | 5–4 | |||
| Quarter Final | Wolfsburg | 2–1 | 1–0 | 3–1 | |||
| Semi Final | Hamburg | 2–1 | 0–0 | 2–1 | |||
| Final | Atlético Madrid | 1–2 (AET) | |||||
| 2011/12 | UEFA Europa League | First Qualifying Round | NSÍ Runavík | 3–0 | 0–0 | 3–0 | |
| Second Qualifying Round | Crusaders | 4–0 | 3–1 | 7–1 | |||
| Third Qualifying Round | RNK Split | 2–0 | 0–0 | 2–0 | |||
| Play-off Round | Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk | 3–0 | 0–1 | 3–1 | |||
| Group K | FC Twente | 1–1 | 0–1 | 3rd | |||
| Odense BK | 2–2 | 2–0 | |||||
| Wisła Kraków | 4–1 | 0–1 | |||||
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Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“When Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold.”
—Prince Metternich (1773–1859)