Europa League: Dnipro 1 Fulham 0

Fulham qualified for the group stages of the Europa League after a 3-1 aggregate win over Dnipro, despite losing Thursday’s second leg 1-0.

An Evgeny Shakhov goal mid-way through the first half of their match in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, momentarily threatened to upset Martin Jol’s side progress, but they managed to get through thanks to a resilient defensive effort.

Despite his side heading into the game with a 3-0 lead after last week’s first leg in west London, Jol named a strong line-up, picking Moussa Dembele to partner Andy Johnson upfront in the continued absence of Bobby Zamora.

Dnipro failed to take the game to their opponents early on and it was Fulham who created the first chance of the match, when Damien Duff’s shot forced a save out of Jan Lastuvka in the Dnipro goal.

The narrow escape brought a sense of urgency to former Sevilla boss Juande Ramos’ side, and they started to press forward as a result.

Fulham’s left-back John Arne-Riise was forced off through injury to be replaced by the inexperienced Matthew Briggs.

The home side’s pressure paid off after 23-minutes when Shakhov headed past a helpless Mark Schwarzer from 12-yards out.

Dnipro continued to push for another goal and a Serhiy Kravchenko corner almost led to a chance before Fulham managed to scramble the ball away from danger.

Fulham then launched their own foray on goal, firstly through an off-target Steve Sidwell shot, before Chris Baird forced Lastuvka into a making a save.

The former Fulham stopper was again forced into action three minutes later through a Clint Dempsey effort, but it was his opposite number who made the final save of the half in stoppage time.

Australian Schwarzer had to reacted smartly to tip over Yevgen Konoplianka’s effort, and maintain Fulham’s two-goal lead as the first-half drew to a close.

Dnipro begun the second half with intent but failed to make their possession pay as Schwarzer again denied the hosts with a pair of saves.

Substitute Pajtim Kasami had the perfect chance to finish off the tie but failed to finish off some great work from Duff, instead scooping over from six yards.

Schwarzer was forced into one last piece of action shortly before the end, having to move quickly to turn a firmly hit free-kick around the post.