Do you remember? Fulham’s road to the final.

The Cottagers have a great history, but they have never won a major trophy. They are now lying in the 17th position in The Championship, but just 6 years ago The Cottagers had a great squad, which made significant things in The Europa League.

Roy Hodgson’s players weren’t so impressive in The Premier League (season 2009/2010), finishing 12th in the standings, but showed they can beat every single team. Fulham started their participation in The Europa League from the third qualifying round, where they had to play against Lithuanian side Vetra. The Londoners had no problems, winning 3-0 twice.

Then, they had to meet the Russian side Amkar Perm in the play-off round. Fulham played really well in the first leg and won 3-1 at Craven Cottage. Andrew Johnson, Clint Dempsey and Bobby Zamora scored for The Londoners. In the second leg, Fulham played bravely in defence and lost only 0-1 to the Russian team, which led The Cottagers to the group stage of the tournament.

The Cottagers were placed in Group ‘E’ with Basel, Roma and CSKA Sofia. Fulham started with a visit to Sofia and a 1-1 draw. They were lucky to equalize with Diomansy Kamara’s goal in the 65th minute (that was one of their very few goal-scoring chances in the match). Then, Fulham showed a real improvement and beat 1-0 Basel at Craven Cottage with Danny Murphy’s goal in the 57th minute.

The third match in the group was against the favourites – Roma, at home. Hangeland opened for Fulham in the first half. Mark Schwarzer saved a penalty and made a couple of great saves, before Roma equalized in the added time of the match. Logically, Fulham lost their visit to Italy, but they still had chances for going through.

The crucial match was against Basel, when Fulham won 3-2 in Switzerland. Then, The Cottagers eliminated Shakhtar Donetsk, before playing against Juventus.

The Old Lady smashed Fulham at The Juventus Stadium in the first leg, but won only 3-1. The Italian side led 1-0 in the second leg at Craven Cottage after just 2 minutes and it looked that Roy Hodgson’s players will be eliminated from the tournament. But Bobby Zamora managed to score very quickly after Trezeguet’s opener and brought Fulham back in the game. The 27th minute was the crucial one, because Juve remained with 10 men on the pitch after a red card. 5 minutes before the final whistle for the first half Gera turned thing around for Fulham (2-1).

Just 4 minutes after the break Zoltan Gera scored his second goal, equalizing the aggregate score. It seemed like the match will go to the extra time, but Clint Dempsey showed how genius he is. He flipped the ball over Chimenti from outside the box and found the net for 4-1!

Then, Fulham eliminated Wolfsbourg and Hamburg. In the second leg of the battle against Hamburg, The Cottagers again turned the score in their favour.

But not each fairy-tale has a happy end. Fulham were so close from winning The Europa League trophy, but a Diego Forlan’s goal in the 115th minute sent the cup to Atletico Madrid.