Fulham 3 Amkar Perm 1: match report

20 August 2009 22:02
Fulham visit the Urals next week and a plastic pitch buoyed by their latest success. A fourth straight victory and 10 goals so far gives given the Londoners the perfect start to the season, and they travel to Russia confident of reaching the group stages of the inaugural Europa League.[LNB]Goals from Andrew Johnson, Clint Dempsey and Bobby Zamora gave Fulham a sound foundation for the return leg though they conceded a late goal which highlighted an element of complacency in an otherwise efficient display. [LNB] Related ArticlesRapid Vienna 1 Aston Villa 0Everton 4 Sigma Olomouc 0Fulham agree £15m Mario Gomez dealSport on televisionFormed only in 1993 by a local mineral fertilizer factory, Amkar are the most Easterly club in a top European League. Based in Perm, a city in the Urals, they take their name from a compound produced at the factory. But no chemical equation could help a team consisting of Russians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, a Montenegrin and a Brazilian and they soon found themselves trailing.[LNB]Amkar included Georgy Peev, whose reward for winning the Russian player of the year last season was a rare 1936 Red Army pistol. And with a man on the bench called Vyacheslav Kalashnikov, they could have been expected to come with all guns blazing.[LNB]That they did, for three minutes or so, with Fulham's defence panicking under pressure from a short burst of attacks from the flank.[LNB]But Fulham went into the game with an impressive record. They beat FK Vetra, of Latvia, 3-0 in both legs of the previous round, they won 1-0 at Portsmouth on Saturday, and with just three minutes and 16 seconds on the clock, against the back drop of a stunning red sky, they scored their eighth goal of the season.[LNB]Bobby Zamora received the ball from Clint Dempsey and, with an intelligent pass he found fellow striker Andrew Johnson, who scored twice in the second leg against Vetra, finished with confidence.[LNB]The visitors threatened sporadically but they lacked a cutting edge and Fulham were unfortunate not to add to their score before the interval with goalkeeper Sergey Narubin thwarting the energetic Dempsey and industrious Johnson, while Brede Hangeland headed narrowly wide.[LNB]Johnson was denied again, in the 43rd minute, only by the bravery of Zakhary Sirakov, who cleared athletically off the line. [LNB]Roy Hodgson, the Fulham manager, will have warned against complacency at half time and Johnson was left to rue another miss, just 13 seconds into the second half.[LNB]And the warning signs re-emerged when it took an impressive save from Mark Schwarzer, from Amkar captain Martin Kushev. But just as seeds of doubt were being sown by the men from fertilizer country, Fulham added a second.[LNB]In the 51st minute, Dempsey collected a lose ball just outside the area and dispatched a delightful half volley into the top corner. The goal calmed the previously nervous home fans, who turned their attentions to Sunday's visit of Chelsea, telling their neighbours where to stick their blue flag.[LNB]Johnson was brought down heavily, by Dmitry Belorukov, in the 63rd minute and while the Russian was cautioned the striker was replaced, suffering from a shoulder injury, by Erik Nevland, a worrying sight for Fulham fans ahead of the derby.[LNB]By they also saw the debut of £4 million midfielder Damien Duff, who made an immediate impact. His first touch was to feed Nevland, who laid the ball for Zamora to finish in style. There was, however, time for Vitaliy Grishin to steal what could still prove to be an important away goal.[LNB]Match details[LNB]Fulham (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Pantsil, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky; Gera (Duff 75), Etuhu (Baird 78), Murphy, Dempsey; Johnson (Nevland 66), Zamora.Subs: Stockdale (g), Kelly, Riise, Johnson.Booked: Dempsey.Amkar Perm (4-1-4-1): Narubin; Sirakov, Cherenchikov, Belorukov, Gaal; Drincic; Carlos (Junozovic 84), Peev, Novakovic (Telkivski 67), Zhilayev (Grishin 59); Kushev.Subs: Usminsky (g), Pomerko, William, Kalashnikov.Booked: Belorukov, Cherenchikov.Referee: P Garcia (Portugal).[LNB][LNB] 

Source: Telegraph