Fulham secure vital win, Hearts capitulate in Croatia
Fulham moved a step closer to the Europa League group stages - but Hearts look all but out
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By Matt Hallam. |  |
Thursday, 20, Aug 2009 10:03
By Rob Swan
Fulham sealed a crucial 3-1 home win over Russian side Amkar Perm in the first leg of the Europa League qualifying play-off round, while Hearts' hopes of reaching the group stage of the competition were shattered in Zagreb after a 4-0 thrashing by Dinamo.
Andrew Johnson put Fulham 1-0 ahead after just three minutes when Bobby Zamora played a fine early ball into the path of the England striker for a tidy finish past Amkar's Sergey Narubini.
The Cottagers dominated the first half but only had one goal to show for it. Zamora was at the heart of the action, while both Johnson and Clint Dempsey were thwarted by Narubin. The away side only threatened once in the opening 45 minutes when Bulgarian midfielder Georgy Peev hit his shot straight at Mark Schwarzer.
Moments after Schwarzer had denied Amkar captain Martin Kushev from just outside the six yard box, Dempsey doubled Fulham's advantage ten minutes after the break with a brilliant effort from 20 yards which Narubini was left with no chance of saving.
Despite the comfortable lead, Roy Hodgson had cause for concern when Johnson had to limp off injured with 25 minutes remaining after he was fouled by Dmitry Belorukov.
However, the Cottagers appeared to have ensured themselves a comfortable aggregate lead going into the second leg when the busy Zamora added a third.
£4 million new signing Damien Duff was introduced to the Fulham faithful to a loud cheer when he replaced Zoltan Gera with 15 minutes to go, and moments later his ball to Zamora was subsequently converted by the former Tottenham Hotspur striker.
Amkar did manage to pull one back moments later, though, when substitute Vitali Grishin found the top right hand corner of the Fulham net from just inside the box.
But the match finished 3-1 to Hodgson's side and they now travel to Russia next Thursday hoping for a repeat performance.
Meanwhile in the sweltering heat of Zagreb, Croatian champions Dinamo took the lead after just five minutes when a cross from the right wing was floated in by Jorge Sammir. Hearts goalkeeper Marian Kello failed to deal with it as the ball looped over his flailing arm, and was comfortably nodded in at the far post by Mario Mandzukin.
Under pressure for much of the first half, Pedro Morales rattled the Jambos' crossbar from 25 yards with a powerful, dipping effort, as the Scottish outfit tried desperately not to concede a second.
However, their efforts were in vain.
On 35 minutes another cross from the right wing was headed back across by the first goalscorer Mandzukic. After an initial clearance from Ismael Bouzid, the ball eventually broke to Dinamo again and although the first shot was saved by Kello, the ball fell kindly into the path of Dimitris Papadopolous for an easy tap in.
Hearts experienced a rare spell of possession just after the break but failed to test the Dinamo keeper.
Then on 55 minutes, the Croatians added a third to seriously dent Hearts' chances of progressing in the competition. A swift counter-attack was eventually picked up by Ivica Vrdoljak on the left-hand side of the penalty area, and as the Hearts defenders backed off the Croatian under-21 international curled a fabulous effort into the far corner of the net.
And it was 4-0 less than four minutes later when former Liverpool defender Igor Biscan fired a header past Kello after a corner on the right from the game's outstanding player, Morales. The Croatians were living up to their attacking reputation while the Scottish side had capitulated.
Papadopolous very nearly made it 5-0, five minutes before the final whistle, but his effort came back off the Hearts' post - a rare let off for Csaba Laszlo's side who came up against a far stronger team on the night.
The match finished 4-0 and the Scots now face a mammoth task to overcome the big deficit next Thursday at Tynecastle.