The Europa League game between Fulham and Juventus at Craven Cottage on Thursday March 18 2010.
He had talked the talk and, on Thursday night, gloriously, irrepressibly, he walked the walk. Bobby Zamora led Fulham to an exhilarating, improbable, fabulous victory in the Europa League, trouncing and traumatising a shell-shocked Juventus. At Craven Cottage the Old Lady had an attack of the vapours.
Zamora had spoken of how he was going to give Fabio Cannavaro a hard time.
It wasn’t an empty threat. He did just that. Except then the veteran Italian international got himself sent off, a straight red card, perhaps harshly, perhaps a moment when his cynical play finally caught up on him, for bundling over Zoltan Gera with an hour to go. That lit the touch-paper on an already raucous response from Fulham.
At the final whistle, having over-hauled a deficit that, at one stage stood 4-1 in favour of the Italians after their first-leg 3-1 victory, and who were eventually reduced to nine-men, with Jonathan Zebina’s injury-time dismissal for kicking out at Damien Duff, the disbelieving Fulham players went on an exhausted lap of honour. Alessandro Del Piero tried to escape but Simon Davies caught him to swap shirts — and who could blame him?
This was, probably, surely, the greatest night in Fulham’s history and everyone who was here, except for the shell-shocked, silenced Juve supporters, will recall it time and time again.
They will recall the way in which Zamora, the much-maligned, much-criticised, and, at times, lumbering striker out-muscled the canny Cannavaro — using some of the defender’s own dark arts to create space — to chest down and volley past 39-year-old, third-choice goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti who went on to have an horrific evening.
They will recall two goals from Zoltan Gera and they will recall, above all, the way in which Clint Dempsey shimmied along the edge of the penalty area to drift the most exquisite of right-foot chips up and over Chimenti and into the top corner of the net.
As the ball arced through the air, it was unerring. It was almost as if time stood still for the breathless Fulham supporters and how their team deserved such a brilliant goal to win a brilliant match and cap a brilliant performance, a brilliant comeback.
They march on into the quarter-finals of this competition, with the draw on Friday, but it’s almost immaterial. An adventure that started last July in Lithuania and appeared to have died last week in Turin goes on and on.
Exhausted limbs are being dragged from match to match and this will be a season to remember. Juventus may be a pale-shadow of the side which once dominated Europe, twice winning the European Cup, but they are still studded with big names.
This was a big scalp with Fulham having already knocked out the holders, Shakhtar Donetsk and they did it without a dozen or so injured or suspended players.
None of the clubs left in the competition will want to play them such is the spirit, the organisation, the belief, instilled by manager Roy Hodgson whose reputation grows and grows. He was exuberant, disbelieving himself but when he looks back over what just happened he will know it was a match in which he out-coached Alberto Zaccheroni and his team out-played their much-vaunted opponents who simply had no answer, no response.
And to think, Juve had gone ahead after precisely 90 seconds with the kind of goal that crushes spirits. But not for Fulham. When Stephen Kelly and Brede Hangeland made a hash of clearing a routine cross, the ball broke to David Trezeguet and he swept it into the net. Silence.
And then a response. Despite the goal, Fulham sensed a vulnerability. Juve creaked in defence and Chimenti, playing only his second game in two years, having conceded three goals at the weekend, looked shaky. So when Paul Konchesky crossed, Cannavaro went to ground and Zamora, in front of England manager — and former Juve coach — Fabio Capello scored.
The striker then spun in the centre-circle to slide a pass to Gera who, as he collected the ball, and through on goal, was bundled into by Cannavaro.
Red card number one from referee Bjorn Kuipers. It looked harsh and the Italians were furious while Chimenti clawed away Zamora’s free-kick. Fulham won another. This time Simon Davies lofted it against the cross-bar and the rebound struck Zamora and was scrambled away. From the corner, Dickson Etuhu smacked a header against the outside of the post.
But Fulham were relentless and in the move of the match Konchesky played the ball into Zamora who cleverly flicked the ball up to Davies who squared it low for Gera to stab it in at the near post.
Fulham sensed something special and soon after the re-start Gera hared down the right, back-heeling a pass into the path of Duff whose cross struck Diego’s hand. Unintentional but unmistakeably so and Kuipers pointed to the spot. Gera, calmly, side-footed home the penalty. Little wonder the Hungarian pointed to the heavens.
Having levelled up the tie Fulham, inevitably, lost a little momentum. It had taken some effort to get this far but, finally, they went again.
Chimenti beat out a snap-shot from Davies, Dempsey, on as a substitute, had a header pushed away before the goalkeeper repelled Gera’s shot.
As improbable as it seemed at kick-off, extra-time loomed. But not so. There was then Dempsey’s wonderful intervention after Etuhu rolled the ball into his feet and the Juve defenders, suicidally, stood off. What a goal, what a tie, what a night.
Fulham’s greatest moments
1932 Fulham win Division Three South with a club record 111 goals, including a memorable 10-2 win over Torquay, then the club’s record victory.
1949 Fulham finally reach the top flight when, in 1949, they finish top of the old Second Division, finishing just a point ahead of West Bromwich Albion.
2001 A 2-1 win at Huddersfield thanks to a Louis Saha penalty and winner from Luis Boa Morte confirms promotion to the Premiership for the first time, with five games remaining.
1975 Fulham reach their first – and only – FA Cup final by beating Birmingham in the semi-final replay, thanks to a John Mitchell goal in extra time. But a side including Bobby Moore and Alan Mullery lose 2-0 in the final to West Ham.
2002 Fulham win the InterToto Cup, beating another Italian side, Bologna over two legs. After a 2-2 draw in Italy, Jean Tigana’s side win 3-1 at Loftus Road to qualify for the Uefa Cup and reach the third round.
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