#4 Fulham 2011-12
The 2011-12 European season was one of highs and lows for English sides – Chelsea would win the UEFA Champions League, but it also saw terrible performances from the other English sides. Arsenal went out in the round of 16 of the Champions League and the two Manchester Clubs went down to the Europa League after group stage exits in the Champions League and were promptly eliminated in the R16 of that competition as well.
Only plucky Stoke City successfully navigated the Europa League group stages that season and the third English side to fall in the 2011-12 Europa League group stages – after Spurs and Birmingham – were Fulham. The London side had a dream run in the 2009-10 edition, reaching the final after eliminating Italian Champions, Juventus, German Champions, Wolfsburg, and Hamburg, only to lose to Atletico Madrid in extra time.
This time, Fulham had reached the competition via the Fair play route and endured four qualifying rounds to reach the group stages, where they were handed a relatively straight forward draw comprising of Twente, Wisla Krakow and Odense. A Mark Schwarzer own goal led to a 1-1 draw with Twente in their opening match, but Fulham returned to winning ways away at Odense, with English striker Andy Johnson in sublime form.
The Cottagers would lose the next match away to Wisla, but would come back to rout the Polish opposition 4-1 in the home leg. Seven points in the bag with two games left – Fulham were in pole position to go through when their luck dramatcially changed.
Austrian Marc Janko would score a last minute winner for Twente against Fulham in the next match to ensure that the Dutch side progressed as group winners with a game left. Fulham were still in second place when they welcomed rock bottom Odense to Craven Cottage – where they had never lost a European game – and they only needed to match Wisla Krakow’s result against Twente to qualify.
Goals from Clint Dempsey and Kerim Frei meant that Fulham took a 2-0 lead at half time whereas Wisla and Twente were all square at Krakow. The second half saw Wisla take the lead against the Dutch side and Hans Andreason pulled one back for Odense – but as things stood, Fulham would still go through.
However, deep in to the third minute of injury time, Senegalese striker Baye Fall headed the ball in to Fulham’s net to snatch the equaliser for Odense with virtually the last touch of the game. Fulham had no chance to regroup and Wisla would leapfrog them in to second place in the group.
