Hangeland the hero for Fulham

The defender, along with goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, kept out almost everything the Ukrainians threw at them at the vast Donbass Arena.

Hangeland popped up with Fulham’s goal – with their first attack of the night - to set up a stunning success for Roy Hodgson’s men.

During their visit to England Shakhtar’s players were barred from Harrods, owned by Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed, and the Londoners knew that if they could shut up shop again they would be going through.

They managed to do just that, under immense pressure and in front of a vociferous home crowd, for 69 minutes until Jadson fired Shakhtar level.

But Fulham held out for the final, nerve-jangling last 20 minutes to knock out the 2009 UEFA Cup winners and make the last 16 of the revamped competition for the first time in their history.

Only a stoppage-time red card for Danny Murphy, which will rule him out of their next match, marred a memorable evening in Donetsk.

Shakhtar, who had Luiz Adriano’s away goal to show for their efforts in the first leg at Craven Cottage, were quickly into their stride with their five-strong Brazilian contingent looking sharp.

In the first minute Adriano fired in a low shot which was comfortably dealt with by Schwarzer.

The Fulham goalkeeper was called into more serious action when he tipped a long-range effort from Willian over the crossbar with just three minutes gone.

Adriano should have done better with an attempted curler moments later before, with the visitors retreating deeper and deeper, Schwarzer kept his side on level terms with a superb diving one-handed save to deny Fernandinho.

Fulham’s overworked keeper then had to block another low Willian drive midway through the first half.

It was all hands to the pump in the Fulham area with striker Bobby Zamora hacking a dangerous low centre clear before Schwarzer scrambled Yaroslav Rakitsky’s 30-yarder round a post.

But having stood up to the barrage, incredibly it was Fulham who took the lead with their first attack of the night.

After 33 minutes Zamora won a free-kick down the right, Damien Duff floated in the cross and Hangeland’s glancing header beat the motionless Shakhtar goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov.

It cancelled out Adriano’s strike seven days earlier, to the delight of 350 hardy travelling fans, and meant Shakhtar needed to score twice to stay in the tie.

The hosts were straight back on the attack after the break and Adriano headed captain Darijo Srna’s cross into the arms of Schwarzer.

But although Shakhtar continued to dominate Hangeland was imperious at the back, cutting out a driven centre from Razvan Rat with an immaculate first touch and getting his head onto just about everything else thrown at him.

With frustration growing in the home ranks, substitute Douglas blazed an ambitious 25-yarder high over Schwarzer’s crossbar.

The Cottagers had a chance to kill off the tie when a rare counter-attack saw Zamora break clear down the right but his square cross, towards an unmarked Zoltan Gera, was cut out by defender Olexander Kucher.

And the moment Fulham feared came in the 69th minute when Douglas reached the byline and pulled the ball back for Jadson to sweep past Schwarzer to level the match on the night.

Fulham hearts were in their mouths with 10 minutes to go when a vicious curler from defender Rakitsky thundered into the side-netting.

Then Douglas’ shot was deflected wide off Murphy with Shakhtar screaming for handball.

Gera passed up another chance to put Fulham clear when he scuffed wide in the final minute, before Murphy was shown a red card for kicking out at Srna moments before the final whistle.