Fulham, Atletico target glory in Hamburg

Two years after saving their Premier League skins on the final day of the season, homely Fulham are hoping to complete a remarkable journey under much-travelled manager Roy Hodgson by beating the nine-times Spanish champions.

Midfielder Simon Davies described Fulham's sensible, well-organised style as "not very exciting" at the club's training ground last week but their path to the showpiece in the German port city has been pure fantasy.

After starting in the qualifying competition against Lithuanian side FK Vetra on July 30 last year, Fulham made it out of a tough first round group containing AS Roma, CSKA Sofia and Basel, and then began toppling some of Europe's big guns in the knockout rounds.

First, holders Shakhtar Donetsk were felled, then Juventus and they followed that by beating German champions Wolfsburg before breaking SV Hamburg's hearts in the semis.
"Since staying up on the last day at Portsmouth the transformation has been film-like really," midfielder Danny Murphy, a UEFA Cup winner with Liverpool, told reporters.

"If you had written it as a book, you would laugh at the speed of it and the surrealness of it and that's all credit to Roy and the staff.

"I was suspended for the Juventus game and when they scored I felt like going home. But after that fightback we all started to believe it could be a special year. We thought, we've beaten Juve, so we can beat anybody."

Englishman Hodgson, the former Inter Milan coach, has done a remarkable job moulding a bunch of players that were bit-part players at former clubs into a tight-knit unit that has proved formidable at their Craven Cottage ground beside the Thames.

Bobby Zamora, a striker who had mixed success at Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, has bagged eight goals in the competition although he is struggling with an Achilles injury.

Zoltan Gera, the Hungarian midfielder signed from West Bromwich Albion, has chipped in with six, including two on an incredible night in March when Fulham came back from the dead against Juventus, overturning a 4-1 aggregate deficit.

Ireland's Damien Duff and American Clint Dempsey have also been vital cogs as has Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer who is hoping to make up for losing to Sevilla in the UEFA Cup final when playing for Middlesbrough.