Duff looks to Europa to ease play-off heartache
Duff’s hopes of making his second appearance at a World Cup finals were dashed in November after Thierry Henry’s infamous handball helped France seal a 2-1 aggregate play-off win in Paris.
The Cottagers winger admits his bad memories have been put to the back of his mind, partly due to Fulham’s European success this year.
Roy Hodgson’s side have accounted for the likes of UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk and Juventus to make the quarter-finals, where they hold a 2-1 lead going into tonight’s second leg against Wolfsburg.
The Cottagers will set up a semi-final against Hamburg or Standard Liege should they progress and Duff admits he is desperate for the Cottagers to end the season by lifting the trophy.
“Will winning the Europa League make up for losing out on the World Cup? Yes, that and more,” the 31-year-old said.
“It has been an amazing journey, and in a way that night in Paris is a distant memory. We’ve played so many games since then and they seem to be getting bigger and bigger. To get to a final and win would be just unbelievable.
“When we started out in the summer, nobody would have thought we’d get this far, so bring it on.”
A thigh injury to Clint Dempsey has left manager Roy Hodgson short of attacking options for tonight’s clash at the Volkswagen Arena.
Bobby Zamora is struggling with an achilles injury while David Elm has not travelled with the squad after going to hospital to have checks on the recurrence of a virus he picked up in Turin last month.
Hodgson, already without Andy Johnson for the rest of the season, is confident his side will be able to perform even if Zamora does not play.
“We’ve played quite a lot of games without Bobby this season so I don’t think I had any fears. We needed to prove we could win without him,” said the 62-year-old.
“We’ve been stretched up front all season. We lost Andy Johnson in the first week in January, that limited us.
“Dempsey took a knock against Wigan. That means resources are even more stretched but Gera has partnered Bobby up front and together they’ve done a very good job for the team.”
Fulham were in control for the majority of last week’s first leg at Craven Cottage and they should have gone 3-0 up before Alexander Madlung scored what could turn out to be a vital away goal for Wolfsburg.
Tonight’s clash in Lower Saxony will be the Cottagers’ 54th match of a long season which began with a win over Lithuanian minnows Vetra in July.
But Hodgson is adamant that both he and his players will not be suffering from fatigue tomorrow.
“These sort of games fire you up even more and remind you why you still want to be involved at the very top level,” said Hodgson, who took Inter to the UEFA Cup final in 1997.
Meanwhile Wolfsburg coach Lorenz Gunther Kostner has called on star striker Edin Dzeko to end speculation about a summer move to Chelsea or Manchester City by committing his future to the club. “Dzeko saying he will stay would be an absolutely huge sign for us. I can’t tell you how important that would be but right now we have to wait to see what happens in May. At the moment is that he is on absolute top form. He’s really firing on all cylinders. He’s doing fantastic.”
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