Flores demands “courage”

Atletico Madrid coach Quique Sanchez Flores has called on his team to be “courageous” in what he expects to be a tough physical battle against Fulham in the Europa League final tonight.

Atletico has beaten Shakhtar Donestsk, Juventus, Wolfsburg and Hamburg on route to the final but is refusing to take Roy Hodgson’s men lightly.

“They have excellent players,” he said. “The physical aspect and strategy come together. We have to take some risk but not open ourselves to dead-ball situations. There are many reasons to be optimistic but we have to be careful.”

Fulham may be without top scorer after Bobby Zamora sat out training yesterday with an Achilles’ problem.  Damien Duff meanwhile did take part in the team’s session in the Hamburg Arena and is believed to have fully recovered from a leg injury that had threatened to rule him out.

Hodgson meanwhile, who coached Inter Milan to the 1997 UEFA Cup final, said that achievement has been eclipsed by this year’s run with Fulham.

“I was very proud to get to that final with Inter but I’m even prouder to be here with Fulham,” he said. “We’ve been much less fancied in this tournament than Inter were in 1997 and secondly we had a tougher passage to this final.”