Hodgson - We can turn it round

Hodgson: Knows Fulham face an uphill task

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Fulham manager Roy Hodgson was disappointed by his side's lacklustre defending that gave Juventus a 3-1 win, but insists they can fight back to reach the next stage of the Europa League.

The Cottagers went 2-0 down within 30 minutes thanks to goals from defenders Nicola Legrottaglie and Jonathan Zebina before Dickson Etuhu pulled one back.

However, the visitors always looked second best and Hodgson's charges seemed to switch off when David Trezeguet restored Juve's two-goal cushion with a sharp third to emphasise the gulf in class between the two sides.

Hodgson insists his team can still reach the quarter-finals, but knows that Trezeguet's opportunistic strike has left them with a mountain to climb.

"I thought they were very effective, not least from scoring two goals from corners," said Hodgson.

"The real disappointment from our point of view is that having got back into the game at 2-1 and seemingly not being particularly troubled we gave away a very foolish goal.

"That meant it's an uphill battle but I thought the players did extremely well in the second half because at 3-1 it's dangerous.

"We needed a second goal but we needed not to concede another so it was a good performance in the second half.

"But we're not out of the tie yet and at 2-1 we might have even been congratulating ourselves because we gave a decent performance here."

No disgrace

Hodgson added: "But certainly we did enough in the game to show we're not out of the tie and we certainly weren't disgraced in any way here.

"The bitter pill to swallow and the bitter pill we're going to be carrying for the next week is that third goal, which I thought was very unnecessary.

"We had possession of the ball in their half and there was one minute left to play and I think we should have come in at 2-1 and would have been quite happy."