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The Final in Hamburg was always the ultimate target for all the teams in the Europa League & after what has been a varied & indeed long journey in Fulham’s case, Atletico Madrid & Fulham clash to decide the prize.

Fulham’s Europa League campaign has been incredibly long & arduous with their first match played on 30th of July in the 3rd qualifying round stage against FK Vetra.

Nobody in the football world, including anybody connected to Fulham would have believed that some 10 months after that first match that Fulham would be in the Final but they are & they certainly totally deserved to be.

Roy Hodgson has produced near miracles to manage what is a relatively thin squad through so many matches & of course the players deserve great credit for getting past the likes of Juventus, Hamburg, Wolfsburg, Shaktar Donetsk, Basle, CSKA Sofia, Roma & many more teams.

Fulham’s performances in this competition have been the best they have produced all season including amazing comebacks against Juventus to win the home leg 4-1 having been 4-1 down on aggregate, coming back to beat Hamburg 2-1 in Semi Final having been behind.

All of Fulham’s performances have shown great organisation, great team spirit & character, an immense work ethic & of course a fair level of quality with the likes of Schwarzer, Hangelaand, Murphy, Zamora giving Fulham a real solid spine combined with the likes of Duff, Dempsey, Gera & Davies providing the required attacking quality.

Fulham are now proven at this level & will certainly believe they can complete their remarkable journey by winning this competition but Roy Hodgson knows Atletico Madrid will provide a tough test & Fulham will have to be at their very best to get the result they want.

Atletico Madrid’s path to the Europa League Final has certainly been very different to Fulham’s as Atletico Madrid started their european campaign in the same Champions League group as Chelsea & FC Porto and that was too tough a test for them.

Indeed Atletico Madrid started the season in very poor, inconsistent form but they have improved markedly since coming into this competition & now they have the opportunity to win both the Europa League & their own domestic cup, the Copa Del Rey so they have everything to play for.

The big turning point in Atletico Madrid’s season was when Diego Forlan scored a 90th minute winner to give Atletico a 2-1 win away in Galatasary & since that night, they only lost one of their next 6 games in the competition getting past the likes of Sporting Lisbon, Valencia & Liverpool to reach the final.

In terms of quality within their squad, then Atletico Madrid certainly have plenty & particularly in the midfield & attacking areas with the likes of Diego Forlan, Sergio Aguerro, Simao, Lopez, Reyes, Salvio & Jurado and they will certainly believe they have more than enough quality to get the goals & beat Fulham.

This Europa League Final really is a fascinating game to call as it is certain to be very competitive & closely fought between two well organised sides so it is very tempting to go for a draw but Atletico Madrid have the edge in terms of quality & we feel that can prove to be the difference on the night & make Atletico Madrid a solid bet to win.

Betting Recommendations:

Outright Match Betting: Atletico Madrid to win

Correct Score options: Atletico Madrid to win 2-0/2-1

First Goalscorer each way/Player to score anytime: Forlan/Aguerro/Reyes

Scorecast options: Forlan/Aguerro/Reyes score 1st & Atletico Madrid win 2-0/2-1

Double Result: Atletico Madrid H/T & F/T