CSKA Sofia v Fulham preview

// A bit of a hack but it works// The article snippet is wrapped onto a second line, even when #article-sub is emptyif( $("div#article-sub").children().length == 0 ) {$("div#article-sub").remove();} Fulham boss Roy Hodgson will give his fringe players a chance in the club's opening Europa League group game away to CSKA Sofia. The Premier League club have left several regulars back in West London for the trip to Bulgaria, with Hodgson insisting he is not neglecting the competition.Aston Villa and Tottenham were both knocked out of last season's Uefa Cup after fielding weakened teams, but Hodgson is confident he still has enough quality to achieve a result from their opening match in Group E.Midfield duo Danny Murphy and Clint Dempsey are injured, while the likes of Mark Schwarzer, Brede Hangeland and Andy Johnson have been left at home.Of the team which started Sunday's 2-1 win over Everton in the Premier League, only goalkeeper David Stockdale and right-back John Pantsil are expected to feature against CSKA.Summer signings Jonathan Greening, Bjorn Helge Riise and Stephen Kelly are among the players set to be given a run-out in the game.Hodgson also confirmed Simon Davies, Zoltan Gera, Erik Nevland, Diomansy Kamara and Chris Baird will be involved in the fixture.Great adventure"We've signed a lot of new players in the summer and they're champing at the bit to show what they can do in the first team," said Hodgson. "They've had to wait a long while for their chance because I've been quite conservative with my team selection."We've got a long season with many games ahead of us. That, plus the fact that we're coming off the back of an international week, in which a lot of our players played two matches."I made the decision fairly early on that, with this being the first game following an international week and a very important game against Everton, this was the right moment to let one or two of the lads, who we've not seen too much of, show what they can do. "We are very happy to be in this competition, we're looking forward to it, we think it's a great adventure, but we also think it's a great adventure for the squad - not just 11 players." CSKA currently top the Bulgarian league and Lubomir Penev's side will certainly provide a stern test for Fulham after knocking out Dinamo Moscow in the previous round.In a group which also contains Roma and Basel, Fulham will be determined to get off to a positive start if they are to fulfil any hopes of reaching the knockout phase.

Source: SKY_Sports