Fulham vs Atlético Madrid: Europa League Final Preview and Prediction

Published by William | Filed under Football (aka soccer), Predictions, Previews, UEFA Europa League

Fulham and Atlético Madrid take the pitch this Wednesday in the Europa League Final.

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5/12 19:45 GMT Fulham vs Atlético Madrid – Odds | Stats


The highly anticipated matchup between two unlikely finalists has arrived. England’s Fulham squares off against Spain’s Atlético Madrid this Wednesday evening at Nordbank Arena in Hamburg, Germany for the inaugural UEFA Europa League Final. While both teams have struggled this season in league play, they have performed like champions in the European competition, both ousting extremely talented clubs to get to this point. Wednesday evening is sure to be an exciting showdown as both clubs gun for the highly coveted European trophy.


Fulham:


It’s truly remarkable that an unlikely, low budget club such as Fulham has made this type of run into the Europa League finals and they likely could not have done it without the leadership of manager Roy Hodgson. Recently voted as Manger of the Year in the Premiership by his fellow managers of the league, Fulham players insist that Hodgson is the reason for the club’s turnaround. While Hodgson’s leadership has been truly remarkable, the road by which the Cottagers got here may have been even more. The first major breakthrough of Fulham’s run started in the round of 32 when they overcame last year’s UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2 on aggregate to advance to the next round. Then, despite being down 3-1 after the away leg at Juventus, Fulham turned in one of the most memorable performances in Craven Cottage history by defeating the Italian side 4-1 thanks to a remarkable chip by American Clint Dempsey in the final minutes. Fulham then had to overcome to extremely talented German clubs in defending Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg and a Ruud Van Nistelrooy led Hamburg SV and thanks to 2-1 homestands in both the quarters and semis, they are where they stand today. Unfortunately for the Cottagers, they may be without 2 of their most inegral parts of their squad in striker Bobby Zamora and winger Damien Duff. Zamora, who leads Fulham in scoring this season, did not train on Tuesday which is obviously not a good sign ahead of the match. They could surely use his attacking presence against a tough Atlético side.


Atlético Madrid:


Much like their counterpart to-be Fulham, Atlético has had much better success in their continental competition rather than in Spanish league play. Los Colchoneros, despite finishing 4th in the La Liga standings last year, can now finish no better than 9th which obviously quite a regression in one year. In Europe, it was a bit different. They started off on a good note during the Champions League qualification stages as they won both legs against Greece’s Panathinaikos. However, they failed to show up in the group stages and were subsequently demoted to the Europa League. Again much like Fulham, Atleti had to overcome some extremely tough opponents to reach the final, including La Liga rival Valencia and the ever so dangerous Reds of Liverpool. We were literally minutes away from an all-England final had it not been for Diego Forlán’s last minute header. Forlán, accompanied with fellow frontman Sergio Aguero (who is rumored to be signing with Chelsea this offseason), will truly pose a threat to Fulham’s backline and if they are not able to contain them, expect a long night for the Cottagers. Atlético manager Quique Flores rested most all of his regular starters during the weekend’s fixture with Sporting Gijon and will be fielding a healthy, full strength lineup.

England’s Manager of the Year Roy Hodgson looks to lead Fulham to one more astonishing victory as the 2009-10 season comes to an end.

Prediction:


I must say, I’m pretty excited to watch this final between 2 talented teams that probably didn’t expect to be where they are at this point in the season. As I will be watching purely as a fan of football, I can hope nothing more than for a close, hard fought match, which I truly expect to get. HOWEVER, Fulham are clearly the underdogs (average 1×2 odds of 3.40 with the best coming at 3.60 from Victor Chandler) and they are going to have an extremely tough time if Bobby Zamora is not fit to play. Even if he features, it doesn’t sound like he will be at 100%. Plus, the attacking duo of Aguero and Forlán I think will prove to be too much for the Cottagers. They’ll keep it close but expect Atlético to take down the trophy.


Pick:


Atlético Madrid 2 – 1 Fulham


Bet of the Match:


Atlético Madrid at 2.20 from Blue Square