The Europa League did not start out as Fulham’s priority, but gradually it became more important, including to Hangeland. Their historic campaign started in July in a qualifier against FK Vetra for the group stage. It was their first major European competition, but the Premier League was the priority and remained so, although priorities changed during the season.

So when did the Europa League become a significant priority? “Well [it’s] hard to say,” Norwegian skipper Brede Hangeland told us. “A bigger priority the more games we won I guess. After we got through the group stage we thought about trying to get as far as we can and that’s what we’ve done. The closer we get to the final obviously, the more important it gets.”

Hungarian international attacking midfielder Gera agreed. “I think the players think that may be we can go to the final,” Zoltán Gera said. “We didn’t speak about that together until just before the Hamburg game. We were just happy to be in the Europa League and we are happy to play in the final. I’m looking forward to the final. After the season we can say it’s been a long season. I’m happy [for it] to be a bit longer season than if we lose the game.”

Changing Priorities:

So when did it become a priority for the club? “You need to talk to the manager, because I think the manager used more than twenty players for this cup in the group stage and in the qualifying games, but I don’t know,” said Gera. “Every game is important.”

After beating defending champion’s Shakhtar Donetsk at Craven Cottage in the last thirty-two, it was still far from the main priority. Fulham manager Roy Hodgson started with the league as the main priority, but despite his delight at playing and beating Shakhtar, the Europa League still wasn’t the priority – the FA Cup was then. But Hangeland offered a different perspective.

“Our main priority is always the league, but it nice to play in European competition and hopefully we can go on. “Hangeland said then. “We had a few good games so far, so we’d like to continue a bit further.” That changed as Juventus, Wolfsburg and finally Hamburg failed to stop Fulham’s historic march to the first Europa League final.

A large part of the reason for Fulham’s progress was their final barrier – the World-Cup bound Australian goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. It was becoming a greater priority, but there were still others. “I think what’s important is that we take away from this game what we have,” said Schwarzer after his goalkeeping heroics helped to keep Shakhtar Donetsk at bay. “We’re very satisfied with the result. We just take every game as it comes. It’s not about winning the Europa Cup; it’s all about just playing each game as it comes along.”

That might have been true then, but Fulham kept winning and the Europa League became more and more important. It started as the least of Fulham’s priorities, but that changed during their long season. The final match is now the most important of the whole season – the defining moment of a remarkable season. The Europa League became the most important competition that Fulham contested.