Source: Team_Talk
Cottagers boss salutes history-makers
Roy Hodgson was delighted to break new ground at Fulham after leading the Cottagers to the first European semi-final in the club's history.[LNB] Bobby Zamora scored after just 21 seconds on Thursday night to give the Cottagers a 1-0 Europa League quarter-final second-leg win at Wolfsburg and a 3-1 aggregate success.[LNB]Fulham will now face Hamburg for a place in the final and will be optimistic of progressing after an impressive display in Germany.[LNB]"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," Hodgson said.[LNB]"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."[LNB]Asked about Zamora's early goal, Hodgson added on ITV4: "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.[LNB]"We're strong defensively and I was quite confident we would stop them scoring three.[LNB]"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."[LNB]Fulham captain Danny Murphy added: "I thought we were quite comfortable.[LNB]"The early goal was nice and settled us a bit. I thought they had the odd spell but over the 90 minutes we had the better chances and should have killed them off."[LNB]Asked to rate the standard of Thursday night's performance, Murphy added: "We've played some good teams along the way and performed consistently well throughout, and the Juventus game will live long in the memory, but that was a very good, mature performance in the big scheme of things.[LNB]"We don't have much experience in Europe but it looked like we did tonight."[LNB]Zamora, whose 19th goal of the season came after a clever turn to shrug off Jan Simunek on the edge of the box and a neat finish, said: "It was that quick and early that I had nothing to think about.[LNB]"It was just hit the target and I managed to score."
