After the two teams who will feature in the Champions League final have been revealed yesterday. Today is also the time in which the two teams who have advanced successfully to the final of the competition have been finalized. Even though many fans and pundits alike have tended to dub the Europa League (Previously known as UEFA Cup) as the UEFA Champions League's “poor little cousin”, Europa League, have been providing quite an entertaining ride for the fans year in year out, and this season is no exception. The two teams who have to be congratulated for having reached the final are none other than Fulham FC of England and Spain's Atletico Madrid. These teams have defied every single odd stacked against them in being able to go this far in the competition. Thus, these two teams have inadvertently granted the maiden edition of the competition under its current name some sort of “romance” aka “Giant Killing Feats”.
For Fulham, it has been really amazing and miraculous on how Roy Hodgson has turned a tame and weak Fulham side into a sturdy and durable world beating side. More importantly, the veteran and well-traveled manager has also successfully managed to turn Craven Cottage from a “points collection center” in the past to a “Impregnable Fortress” in which it is arguable that Fulham are able to go this far in the competition largely thanks to their formidable form in their home ground. This is really evident on how Fulham have won every single home game in the knockout rounds, especially the 4-1 capitulation of Juventus which nullified Juventus' 3-1 advantage from the first leg in Turin. So amazing to know that upon Hodgson's arrival, and with pretty much the same set of players as before, Hodgson managed to initiate a change so drastic that in a relative manner, Real Madrid didn't even manage to initiate a change of such magnitude even after spending close to 300 million Euros.
Most importantly perhaps, is the fact that Hodgson has instilled fighting spirit and belief to win in the squad. This is evident in many occasions in which Fulham have secured a victory after being down from the first leg match (such as against Juventus as mentioned) and also after trailing at half time (such as against Hamburg last night and against Chelsea in the league). To be frank, after being a goal down against either Chelsea or Hamburg, the old Fulham would have just crumbled big time and they would just throw the towel and just concede a bucketload of goals in the second half. But Roy Hodgson has changed all these, and whichever Management theory one wants to attribute the success to, in any case Hodgson is indeed a great manager for being able to initiate such change and of course overcoming any resistance to change from the squad such that they totally conform to the change and implement them where it matters, on the pitch against the Big Boys.
Nevertheless, Fulham's run has been surprising as much as it is scintillating. I remember prior to the Round of 16 clash against Juventus, their captain Danny Murphy posted a blog post in Yahoo Sports website, claiming how he really regrets for being suspended for both legs of the tie against Juventus. Looking at how he crafted his words, it was clearly seen that even Murphy himself didn't believe that Fulham would have been able to knock Juventus out and what he implied by stating his regret-fulness was simply that the second leg tie against Shakhtar Donetsk was the last tie he would ever play in the Europa League. In a nutshell, even Danny Murphy himself initially didn't believe that the aforementioned Shakhtar match wasn't his last match in this season's Europa League, but he would send a wonderful assist to set up Zoltan Gera to score the winning goal last night against Hamburg.
It is also interesting to note that Zoltan Gera just a few seasons ago was involved in a messy relegation battle with West Brom in which the team was eventually relegated. Now, he has just sent his team to their first ever European final. Another interesting point is Brede Hangeland, who was ferociously courted by Arsenal before they settled for Thomas Vermaelen. Since Hangeland stayed on at Fulham, he is now guaranteed at least a Europa League runners-up medal and potentially a gold medal, but had he moved to Arsenal at the beginning of the season, he would not win anything with the Gunners, not even a silver medal!
In any case, now that Fulham is in the final. They really have to ensure that their belief in themselves do not fade or all those massive victories against the likes of the defending champions Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, and Hamburg would just go to waste. They really have to believe that they are not underdogs, and that they have what it takes to rub shoulders with the big boys in Europe and that they have what it takes to win this trophy to complete a fairytale story for everyone associated with the London based club. This is especially crucial since the venue of the final will be in Hamburg's own home stadium, which they have visited in the first leg of the semi finals against Hamburger SV. Fulham now have to carry their superb home form all the way to Hamburg, and since they have visited the ground, they have to try their best to treat the stadium as if it's their own home ground, at least for the final match against Atletico Madrid. Then and only then, they are able to really stamp their authority in Europe by winning a huge trophy, and also winning a date in the European Super Cup against Inter or Bayern Munich, which will further enhance their credentials as a football club.
As for the other semi final tie between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid, it seemed that it was to be a hat-trick of overturning of first leg deficits at Anfield against Atletico Madrid. After trailing 1-0 due to a Diego Forlan goal in Madrid, Liverpool seemed to be the ongoing to the final after Alberto Aquilani somehow managed to ease his price tag burden a little by scoring a nice goal just before half time. Even before the goal, Liverpool had dominated the game, and came close a few times, and how they would rue the fact that Dirk Kuyt didn't manage to score a goal in his horrific near-miss somewhere at the half an hour mark, as well as how Daniel Agger was in an offside position when he headed past David de Gea.
Even when the match went into extra time, there was still a belief that Liverpool was going to pull through and secure a place in the final. Anfield rocked even more when Yossi Benayoun scored a silver goal in the 95th minute to make the aggregate 2-1 and Liverpool was on their way to the final. However, a horrifying thing for any Liverpool fan happened. Diego Forlan, a Manchester United reject in the past scored against Liverpool to put Atletico Madrid ahead on away goals, assisted by Jose antonio Reyes, an Arsenal reject, and Simao a Liverpool reject (but he wasn't signed after being targeted for a while) was also involved in the goal
. At this point of time, Anfield turned literally silence. Further horrific things followed suit. At the 89th minute, Rafa Benitez had substituted Aquilani, the goalscorer for Nabil el Zhar, and in the 110th minute, he bizarrely took Mascherano (who assisted Aquilani's goal) off and replaced him with Philipp Degen and in the 113th minute, he substituted Yossi Benayoun who had just scored 8 minutes prior to this with Dani Pacheco. All three bizarre substitutions which screamed “Sack Me all the way to Juventus!” while Liverpool URGENTLY needed a goal, any goal, even hand of God would be welcomed at this point of time!
But it wasn't to be, with literally three of their key and most in form players in the match brought off, and also the deafening silence of Anfield, there wasn't to be a way back to Liverpool. Diego Forlan had single-handedly knocked Liverpool off and carried the sheer weight of Atletico Madrid on his tennis trained shoulders (he was a tennis player before switching to soccer) and carried them all the way to Hamburg.
Now that Atletico Madrid is in the final, what they have to ensure to beat the sturdy and we have to admit, mighty Fulham is simply that since Atletico Madrid is so erratic that they can be a world class team this week and a pub team the week after before returning to a world class form the next next week, is to somehow ensure that in the final match against Fulham, the Atletico Madrid squad turning up in Hamburg is the world class Atletico not the pub team Atletico. How? I don't know, Quique Sanchez Flores and perhaps Forlan's blonde long hair know for sure....
On a personal and conclusive note, I think the Fulham vs Atletico Madrid is an ideal final for the Europa League. Had it been a Fulham vs Liverpool final, be prepared to see all top football media in the world (which are all English dominated by the way) to proclaim “English Football is the Best”, “English Football is the way to go!”, “England will win the World Cup due to this omen!” or anything of that sort from now all the way until England is knocked out (probably somewhere in the Quarter Finals) in the World Cup, before they start to criticize England like there's no tomorrow and portray Capello as a rotting Pizza. It is also interesting to note that in both Champions League and Europa League, the team which has the final venue as their home stadium have been knocked out (Real Madrid by Lyon, and Hamburg by Fulham). But the last time a team plays the UEFA Cup final at the home ground (Sporting Lisbon), they were defeated by CSKA Moscow.
Football has once again won, and we shall just sit back, relax, and enjoy an arguably interesting and explosive two great finals, firstly between Inter and Bayern, and secondly, between Fulham and Atletico Madrid. May the best teams win!
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