Best Victory in Europe:

Fulham claimed their biggest scalp in Europe tonight – the last ever winners of the UEFA Cup – Shakhtar Donetsk. A 2-1 win leaves the return in the Ukraine next week evenly poised. Shakhtar will fancy themselves to complete the job, but Roy Hodgson’s side have proved durable in Europe despite a small squad depleted by injuries to John Pantssil, Andrew Johnson and American international Clint Dempsey. They are unbeaten in thirteen matches in their Europa League campaign, which is a testament to Hodgson’s ability.

This was Fulham’s most impressive win in Europe, notwithstanding the 3-2 triumph in Basle that earned the Cottagers this lucrative tie. “It’s a very, very good victory,” said Hodgson “It’s certainly our best result in Europe. It ranks alongside the Basle result, but I’ve got to be perfectly honest, I don’t rank Basle and Shakhtar Donetsk in the same league. One team is considerably better than the other. We’ve had victories here against Manchester United. Shakhtar are on that sort of level, but I wouldn’t rate them above the top English teams either.”

This was the stiffest test that Fulham has experienced in an impressive unbeaten run in European football this season, which is particularly noteworthy because Hodgson makes no bones about the fact that the Europa League is not his priority. Brede Hangeland shares his manager’s views on Fulham’s priorities, but was impressed with the performance of the Ukrainian side as was goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, but were they best side they had faced in European competition so far? “I thought so by a good margin actually,” said Hangeland. “You could see why they are the holders of the cup.”

Impressive:

Shakhtar’s players emerged from the Harrods fiasco with an apology, but not the one they really wanted. Their coach, the much travelled, Mircea Lucescu congratulated Fulham on their win, but his perceptions of the match were vastly different from Hodgson. He thought that Belgian referee Serge Gumienny did not allow the beautiful passing game that Shakhtar play to flourish. He hoped for a referee that would facilitate the beautiful game in the return leg. Lucescu thought his team deserved more from the game, but away goal could prove important.

Nevertheless, Fulham secured their win thanks to moments of brilliance from Bobby Zamora. The first was a subtle assist for Zoltän Gera’s third minute goal, which earned the approval of his manager. “It was an excellent first goal,” said Hodgson. “His touch in to Gera was a touch of real quality.” It came from Fulham’s skipper Danny Murphy’s pass before the Ukrainians had settled, despite a warning in the first minute.

“He’s a very two-footed player,” Hodgson said of Zamora. “He can score goals with both feet. I was pleased with Bobby tonight. Apart from his usual accomplished performance he was putting in challenges - working very hard.” But it was a fantastic second half strike that made the difference. His touch seemed to have deserted him temporarily after releasing Gera for the first goal, but an improved second half performance from the Cottagers earned the reward of a Zamora special. From just outside the area he gave Ukrainian international keeper Andriy Pyatov no chance as the ball flew into the top left corner of his goal. “We were very combative and end up winning the game thanks to a wonder strike from Bobby Zamora,” said Hodgson.

World Class Goalkeeping:

With less than a minute played Pyatov produced a fantastic save to deny Hangeland and Fulham the dream start. Murphy’s free-kick found Hangeland in the area and his header demanded the very best from Pyatov at the expense of a corner. Hodgson noted the save and so did Hangeland. “Murph took a quick free-kick, so no-one picked me up at the back post, said Hangeland. “I directed it towards the goal, but he made a very good save.”

Pyatov aside Shakhtar’s defence took time to settle and were swiftly punished for their cold start. They missed the defensive qualities of Dmytro Chygrynskiy – whose last match for the Ukrainian club was the UEFA Supercup. There was plenty of football left to play. Shakhtar gradually imposed their slick passing game in the first half and Fulham had the best of the second half, although they had to cling on at the end. In the final minute of injury time Schwarzer ensured that his team preserved their narrow advantage for the return leg in Donetsk.

The Australian international had little to do despite Shakhtar’s attacking intent, but he proved his worth with a fingertip save to his right as Fernandinho tried to place a delicate chip-shot past him. There was barely time for the corner to be taken. Hodgson appreciated the efforts of both keepers. Nevertheless, Hodgson credited the performances of both keepers. “I think that their goalkeeper made a more spectacular one in the first half from Brede Hangeland’s header, but we have to thank a goalkeeper who doesn’t have that much to do in the game and is alert in the ninety-third minute to be able to pull off the save,” said Hodgson. “It is a very good save and one which could help us because although we conceded an away goal and a 1-0 victory would be enough for Shakhtar Donetsk at least now they’ve got to beat to us.”

Hangeland too appreciated Schwarzer’s efforts. “We all know that we have a brilliant world class goalkeeper,” said Hangeland, “and he pulls off saves like that every so often, so he’s a very good goalie.” Meanwhile, Schwarzer was modest about his save – happy to contribute to the victory. “It came very, very late in the game, so you’re happy to hold on and play your part in the victory,” he said. But he didn’t underestimate the size of the task in Donetsk. “Technically they are a fantastic side,” said Schwarzer. “They have got four or five who want the ball anywhere and everywhere. It’s only one leg; it’s only one foot into the next round, but that can change very quickly next week, so I’m satisfied with the result. I’m satisfied with the performance, but know that it’s going to be one hell of a match next week.”

Brasilian Influence:

Sandwiched between the Fulham goals was an equaliser by one of six Brasilians in Shakhtar’s team – Luiz Adriano. He was played in with a defence-splitting pass midway through the first half by his compatriot Fernandinho. Adriano rounded Schwarzer to level in a first half that Hodgson thought his players showed too much respect to Shakhtar, but ultimately Fulham’s game-plan worked. “We did our homework as much as we could on the team,” said Hodgson. “We knew how good they were and how talented in particular some of those Brasilian players that they have in the team are and made sure that we were able to compete with them.”

Shakhtar showed impressive touches in their passing game with their captain, the Croatian international, Darijo Srna impressing down their right flank and the Brsialians Fernandinho, William Luiz Adriano and Ilsinho demonstrating their abilities in a first half that Shakhtar can consider themselves slightly unfortunate to have gone into the break only on level terms. Schwarzer was impressed. “They’ve got some outstanding players in their side and they did really test us,” he said. “I think next week’s going to be an even bigger test for us.” Meanwhile, Srna was booked as the first half neared its conclusion. Simon Davies made contact with him and he clasped his head. It was an over-reaction that displeased Gumienny and earned the Croat the first yellow card of the night. Srna’s influence waned in the second half, even though some of his team-mates created opportunities that Shakhtar failed to convert.

“To be honest I think we showed them a bit too much respect at one period of time,” said Hodgson. “We started quite brightly, but when they started to get their game going I think the ability they showed occasionally got our lads a bit in their heads and looking in amazement at some of the ability they showed on the field. They saw the result of that subconsciously and dropped off a bit too much, more than maybe we needed to.”

Taking the Game Back:

Hodgson had work to do at half time about the way Shakhtar were expressing themselves. “We talked about that at half time and the players were aware of that situation and determined to go out second half and come what may at least try and take the game to Shakhtar a bit better than what we done in the first half – get closer to them defensively and try and get hold of the ball a little bit more,” Hodgson said. “Fortunately it worked.”

Schwarzer said that Hodgson told them to keep playing as they had been and put them under pressure to try to get a foothold in the game and possibly get a better result. “We kept them under pressure and even when we were 2-1 up there were opportunities when we could have scored a third or fourth goal, but it wasn’t to be,” he said. “We’re happy with the 2-1 result.”

Hangeland agreed.”Delighted to have won the game,” he said. “I felt that we played a really good team. I was impressed by the way they played. To win was obviously good, but it’s still going to be difficult when they have the away goal and what that will do for them over there, but we still beat them here today, so we’ll go there with a lot of confidence and hopefully we can get something there as well.

Fulham deserved their win in an entertaining match, but the hard work has yet to be done in Donetsk with Hodgson depleted squad playing three matches in the week for the fourth week in a row