Fulham 2 Hamburg 1 (Fulham win 2-1 on aggregate)

ZOLTAN Gera described his matchwinner in last night’s Europa League semi-final against Hamburg as the ‘‘most important goal’’ of his career.

The Hungarian struck after 76 minutes at Craven Cottage to cap a fine comeback by the hosts and book Fulham’s place in a European final for the first time in their history.

Trailing to Mladen Petric’s spectacular first half freekick, Fulham’s European adventure spanning 18 games appeared to have reached the end.

But they staged a spirited fightback with Simon Davies producing a wonderfullytaken equaliser in the 70th minute before Gera struck the winner shortly after.

‘‘It’s the most important goal I have ever scored so I’m very, very happy. It’s amazing,’’ Gerasaid. ‘‘We did so well, every single player.’’ Fellow goalscorer Davies was equally thrilled by the performance and credited Fulham boss Roy Hodgson as the motivation behind the second-half fightback.

‘‘The manager said at halftime keep playing your football and you’ll get your rewards, and we did tonight so we’re buzzing,’’ said the Welshman.

‘‘We’ve played some great teams [in this competition] and come from behind.

Everyone was amazing tonight.’’ Danny Murphy, whose pass set up Davies for the leveller, added: ‘‘It just keeps getting better.

‘‘When we went a goal behind it would have been easy to think this was the end of the journey, but I thought the spirit we showed in the second half was tremendous.’’