The agony of a last-gasp goal made the heartache of Fulham crashing out of the Europa League last night even harder to bear.
Deep into the allocated stoppage time and with a mere six seconds left on the clock an equalizer, from Fall, was enough to snuff out our hopes of reaching the last thirty-two of the Europa League.
Shuffling his pack, probably due to a mixture of injuries, suspensions and rotation, Martin Jol would have been quietly confident that Fulham would progress, especially after they`d established a 2-0 lead in the first half.
The opening goal came after a swift incisive one-touch move that saw a Frei pass to the recalled Zamora laid back for Dempsey to coolly slot home past the Odense keeper.
Prior to the opening goal Fulham had peppered the Odense goal with Hangeland seeing a header hacked away off the line and Dempsey also seeing an effort dealt with in the same manner.
The lead was doubled when Frei finished off sublimely after some great work from the outstanding Dembele.
But, they say in football a 2-0 lead is the hardest lead to defend, do you go for that killer third or do you defend what you`ve got?
All credit to Odense though who looked a better team in the second half and when the arrears were reduced just past the hour mark we knew it was game on.
The goal was not without an element of controversy when our visitors were awarded a free kick some twenty-five yards out and with the wall taking shape and being guided by the debutant Etheridge, Andreasen moved the ball a yard to the left to give himself a better angle.
The free-kick was sweetly struck and Etheridge was left in no-mans land as the net rippled.
It should have been the signal for Fulham to up the ante again but it just never happened and deep into stoppage time our worst fears were realized when Fall scored and the silence, apart from the handful of Odense fans celebrating, inside Craven Cottage, said it all.
The European tour was over!
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