Brede Hangeland says Fulham’s fine win over Shakhtar Donetsk last night gives them a real chance of reaching the last sixteen of the Europa League.
We’ve beaten them at home so we’ll go there [Donetsk] with a lot of confidence and hopefully we can get a good result. It’s a good achievement, especially after playing such a good team. I was really impressed with the way they played the game. We’ll have to take our chances when we go to the Ukraine next week for the second leg.
When you play against these types of teams you have to accept they’re very good on the ball and will have most of the possession. Luckily that’s not always the way forward to score goals and on Thursday night we won 2-1 even though they must have had 60 to 70 percent of the possession – it’s important that you don’t get frustrated by that.
I think they’re the best team we’ve played in Europe by quite a margin. You could see why they’re the current holders of the UEFA Cup.
Hangeland had words of praise for Bobby Zamora, who capped another lively display with a fantastic winner.
He’s [Zamora] done well ever since he arrived at the Club – the only difference this year is he’s had some more luck in front of goal. We’ve always known he was a good player and it’s good that everyone else can see that now too.
He’s vital to the Team and certainly one of our most important players. He holds the ball up well; he scores goals and gives opposition defenders a very hard time.
He showed again on Thursday night what a massive player he is for us. He can make things happen and he scored a fantastic goal and I’m very happy for him.
Hangeland does insist, however, that the priority remains the Premier League and that Fulham’s focus will now be solely on getting a result against Birmingham at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
Our main priority has always been the Premier League but it’s always nice to play in this type of competition and hopefully we can continue further. It’s now all about preparing for the game against Birmingham City on Sunday and we’ll talk about Shakhtar again after that. At home we’re capable of beating most teams and that’s what we’ll be trying to do on Sunday.
