John Arne Riise is ready for the next instalment of Fulham’s European adventure but insists his team-mates won’t be taking the challenge of Dnipro lightly when the Ukrainian side visit Craven Cottage on Thursday.
The Norwegian international almost had a dream start to his Premier League career with Fulham, but shot over the bar after 10 minutes of their opening day draw with Aston Villa. The club’s new left back believes Dnipro, managed by Martin Jol’s successor at Spurs Juande Ramos, will be their toughest Europa League opponents so far but feels Fulham can reach the group stages.
We all know that this will be the hardest game we’ve had so far in this competition. The Ukrainian league is quite strong and we expect them to be good technically and very well organised.
We haven’t had things all our own way, but we’ve done well and taken one game at a time. We’ve put ourselves in a good position and I hope that we can move further forward and into the group stage.
It goes without saying that they [Dnipro] will come here wanting to do well, and we have to be aware of that threat. We have been very strong at the back and haven’t conceded too many goals so far. In this competition, away goals can be vital.
