Fulham vs Hamburg - Destiny for Woy?

By Nishant Joshi

I feel a bit weird calling Thursday's match at Craven Cottage 'the most important match in Fulham's history'. We have said that a good four or five times in the past two months, against Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus, Wolfsburg and now Hamburg.

Any followers should now be licking their lips at our chunky E/W bet on Fulham, just one leg away from landing us a 21.0 shot.

At a time when it might seem prudent to hedge our bets, with Fulham still only 5.0 to win the trophy outright, it is fairly pointless to even consider doing such a thing. Instead, Fulham still offer up fantastic value to knock out Hamburg and reach the final in a couple of weeks.

Fulham are still unbeaten at home in European competition, and this year boast 10 wins from 11 home midweek games. I have previously emphasised the atmosphere at Craven Cottage for these midweek games is phenomenal, and I can't see Hamburg relishing this trip.

Despite dominating the first leg, Hamburg played into Fulham's hands and were only ever restricted to long-range shots and had no clear-cut chances. Crucially, Piotr Trochowski was their star player from the first leg and will be suspended for Thursday's game. If that were not big enough of a reason to dodge Hamburg, just consider that they lost 5-1 at Hoffenheim yesterday, followed by today's sacking of their coach Bruno Labbadia.

An incredibly odd move to sack your manager just three days before a semi-final, and a big blow for Hamburg to have lost their talisman as well.

Petric is Hamburg's star striker although he will not be 100% if he plays this game (came on as a sub during the first leg); although Fulham have a fitness doubt of their own with Bobby Zamora, who is likely to start although it remains to be seen whether he will have recovered fully from his Achilles injury. If he does play, Fulham will be playing their strongest side in months, after Clint Dempsey's successful return to the side. Chris Baird is suspended for Fulham although Dempsey would have slotted straight in anyway.

All in all, with Fulham's excellent home record and all momentum firmly behind them, coupled with Hamburg's troubles, this is surely a no-brainer.

NJ's Bet:

Fulham to qualify - 3.5pts @ 2.0 (William Hill)

Nishant Joshi