Fulham star Schwarzer plans to erase Euro misery

Mark Schwarzer is desperate to make amends for one of the worst moments of his career by helping Fulham continue their Europa League fairytale with a quarter-final victory over German champions Wolfsburg.

Australian goalkeeepr Schwarzer was a member of the Middlesbrough team that enjoyed a remarkable run to the UEFA Cup final in 2006, only to see their dreams of winning the club’s first European trophy brought to an abrupt halt as Sevilla thrashed them 4-0 in Eindhoven.

Schwarzer still winces when he thinks back to that night, but the Europa League – the rebranded version of the UEFA Cup – has provided him with far more enjoyable memories this season.

Roy Hodgson’s side emerged from a tough group including Roma before eliminating holders Shakhtar Donetsk in the last 32.

That was just the warm-up for the greatest result in the unfashionable English club’s history as they over-turned a 3-1 first leg deficit to knock out two-time European champions Juventus on a magical evening at Craven Cottage.

And with a place in the final now within touching distance, Schwarzer is eying a shot at redemption.

“It’s always heartbreaking to lose a major final. We lost 4-0, but I don’t think that was a fair reflection of how the match went,” Schwarzer said.

“We were a goal down with 15 minutes left and pushed forward, and they hit us on the break.

“To have the opportunity to play in another final again would be unbelievable.

“The team’s hungry to be successful and it’s showed in our performances so far. I’d love to go all the way.”

If Fulham are to add Wolfsburg to their growing list of scalps, they need another influential performance from Hungary midfielder Zoltan Gera, whose two goals in the second leg helped sink Juventus.

Gera’s imagination, limitless energy and eye for goal have been an ideal foil for the more direct qualities of striker Bobby Zamora.

The pair tormented Juve’s World Cup winning defender Fabio Cannavaro to such an extent that he was sent off for fouling Gera before half-time and they are set to lead Fulham’s attack again on Thursday.

They will need to be at their best as Hodgson’s side have lost all three matches – including an FA Cup quarter-final against Spurs – since beating Juventus, but Gera insists Fulham’s thirst for success hasn’t been quenched just yet.

“It’s already a big achievement to have reached the last eight of the Europa League but we’re still hungry,” Gera said.

“Wolfsburg are a good attacking team that score a lot of goals. We need to be very careful against them because they have some top strikers and attacking midfielders.

“We need to defend well but they do concede so hopefully we can score some goals. It’s very important to keep a clean sheet in these types of games.”

Fulham’s cause would be helped if highly-rated Bosnian striker Edin Dzeko is unable to recover from a knee injury.

Dzeko, a reported transfer target for Arsenal and Chelsea, scored twice in the weekend win at Mainz before he suffered the injury in training on Monday, leaving Wolfsburg coach Lorenz-Guenther Koestner concerned that his star player won’t be able to make the trip to London.