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Europa League: Your Running Commentary

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Both of the finalists in this year's Europa League will be known today as the second legs of Fulham-Hamburg SV and Liverpool-Atletico Madrid are set to take place.

After a scoreless first leg, Fulham boasts a good chance of reaching the final as it hosts Hamburg (3:00pm, DirecTV). Clint Dempsey will begin today's match at Craven Cottage on the bench. 

Liverpool will also play at home (3:00pm, GolTV), but needs to overturn a 1-0 scoreline in order to advance. The hosts will be without Fernando Torres and defender Marvin Skrtel due to injury so getting a victory might prove challenging.

If you will be watching either or both of these matches, please feel free to share thoughts, opinions and play-by-play in the comments section below 

Comments

  1. The one they are talking about is the goal that finished of “the great escape” year before last. Murphy scored away at Portsmouth to keep Fulham up.

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  2. Uhh… seriously reverb? What kind of uneducated statement is that? If any club in the world were down to 10 men against Barcelona for 2/3 of a 2nd leg match in the Camp Nou with a 3-1 aggregate lead, they would do the exact same thing. This isn’t street ball. There’s a thing called tactics and they’re just as vital as the team you select – particularly in the Champions League. You’d have no choice but to play it tight and try and spring the counter against Barca in that scenario. Unless of course you’d like to get eaten alive by Messi and company. Damn the “Special One” for being so tactically “special”. What a terrible coach. Maybe next time he should employ a 3-3-3 in that instance? Would that work better for you?

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  3. From almost twice relegated to the inaugural Europa League final.

    Davies with a bit magic and Zoltan raising the non-existent roof.

    Proud day, but there’s still one more hill to climb.

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  4. playing in the finals of ANY fifa sanctioned tournament, whether it be international or club is a BIG deal. THey knocked out/beaten juventus, shaktar, roma, wolfsburg, and you claim they had a lucky draw? You can only play the opponents on the field and right now, fulham has done just that.

    In the last calendar year dempsey has now played or will play in the final of 2 major tournaments (3 including the world cup), won the bronze boot award at the confeds cup, scored against brazil AND spain, and helped end spains winning streak and along the way chipped fulham into the semis of europa and had a stunner against stoke. Lets hope he caps it all off with a nice performance this summer

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  5. I guess it won’t be an all English final after all. Congratulations to Fulham and Atletico Madrid. Good luck in Hamburg.

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  6. Man liverpool just has nothing for atletico. they seem tired, wonder how much this’ll affect the chelsea match this wknd.

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  7. Europa is the poor man’s Champions League and everyone knows it. But it’s the best Fulham can hope for since they’ve never been anywhere near the CL. It’s a big moment in their history, just as it would be to reach the FA Cup final. If you’d been a Fulham fan all your life, you’d relish this.

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  8. Fulham had a lucky draw. I think if they would have faced Atl. Madrid or Liverpool they would have lost today. It was a great win but who ever they face they will lose in the Final.

    As for Dempsey playing in the final, is it really so special to play against a team who got knocked out of the champions league group stage? If you are not in the Champions League final then you might as well be playing in the Boy Scouts Final. There is only one final that is worth anything.

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  9. what’s aguero going to do at Chelsea anyway? Going to sit like Benzema at Real with Drogba and Anelka in front of him or actually play?

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  10. Liverpool lost this semifinal the minute Fernando Torres was ruled out with injury. Easy to say, but it’s true. Just not the same threat without him.

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  11. How could you be proud of getting a fellow pro sent off by doing that? Yeah, Mom, look how I won us the game… 🙂

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  12. Can’t believe what Fulham has accomplished. I’m practically in tears. This is the proudest I have ever been of this team!

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  13. Did you see how Kuyt went down covering his face like Mike Tyson just broke his nose?

    Fifa needs to come down on that stuff, just as bad as diving…

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  14. Half time of extra time… L’pool with 15 mins to score or they’re out. If Atletico scores again, it really is all over.

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  15. btw – did anyone else notice Dempsey pick up a cheap yellow in the final seconds there? i REALLY hope he wasn’t one short of a suspension. would really be heartbreaking to miss the final.

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  16. Congrats Fulham from a Villa fan. What Roy has done since he came to the Craven Cottage has been quite impressive. Hopefully you guys beat looserpool/atletico and Clint can win his first. Good luck.

    Up The Villa.

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  17. some other European league would get it, im pretty sure. Someone would be bumped up from the qualification round to the playoff round, and someone way down the pecking order would get another slot. They dont really want 4-5 slots from a country.

    Fulham still have a very good chance of getting a spot through the FIFA Fair Play iniitiative though.

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  18. It’s gotten them a lot of new fans, a lot of respect from Liverpool, a lot of chances to win the game outright and an indisputable justification of being in the Final if they make it.
    If you are trying to imply that Atletico allowed in a goal because of their play, so did Inter yesterday and they weren’t even playing.

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  19. really? but Wouldnt Liverpool filled two UEFA spots? someone gotta take one away? would that be the 7th place team in EPL?

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