Roy Hodgson hailed his hard-working side after Fulham reached a European semi-final for the first time in their history with a fine victory in Wolfsburg.
Hodgson’s side controlled a comfortable second leg in Germany from outset with Bobby Zamora scoring a nerve-settling away goal in the very first minute. They held on to that advantage to progress 3-1 on aggregate. Hodgson professed himself ‘delighted’ afterwards.
I’m delighted with the performance, it’s very strong to come here and win 1-0 in a game we had control over for long periods. With a bit more energy we could have increased the score because we had so many chances towards the end, but 1-0 is always a good score.
The Fulham manager heaped praise on his strikeforce: Zamora, who passed a fitness test on his Achilles injury, and Zoltan Gera posed problems for Wolfsburg all night.
You get your goals when you get them and Bob did ever so well, his combination with (Zoltan) Gera was magnificent and meant they had to get three to win the tie. We’re strong defensively and I was quite confident we would stop them scoring three.
It’s nice to make history and I’m so delighted for the players. They were gutted by the goal we conceded in the last minute of the first leg at Craven Cottage and it’s fantastic they’ve come here and kept a clean sheet today.