As Fulham were trailing at the beginning of the second half it was impossible to foresee their latest comeback. It was then that the home support on all four sides of Craven Cottage took to their feet and bellowed their defiance. "Stand up, if you still believe."

The chorus was repeated 10 minutes later, with Hamburg still in the ascendancy from Mladen Petric's 30-yard free-kick, which counted double for his team. At that stage what would follow appeared even less likely. The travelling fans were in fine voice and they took great delight in goading their counterparts, in English of course, with a reminder that "football's coming home".

Fulham, however, do not know when they are beaten and they were able to feed off the blind optimism and translate it, somehow, into something gloriously tangible. Those who thought the success over Juventus in the last 16, when Roy Hodgson's braves fashioned four goals in succession when they needed every one of them to advance, was the summit of the drama and emotion were proved wrong, to their eternal delight.

German sides are not supposed to throw away leads when the race is almost run. Bayern Munich in 1999 was surely the exception. Yet there would be a parallel for scarcely believing English eyes at full-time, when Hamburg's players slumped to their haunches and stared vacantly into the distance. They could not comprehend how they had let two goals in seven minutes unhinge them, first from Simon Davies, then from the outstanding Zoltan Gera. Had Dennis Bergkamp or Eric Cantona finished like Davies, the purists would have drooled for months.

The Fulham support struck up the chorus for the third time but now, everybody had been converted, everybody believed. They revelled further in returning the chant of the Euro 96 anthem to their rivals. But, as the dust settled and Fulham began to digest what, in all probability, was the greatest night in their history, the anthem of defiance resonated. In 2005, when Liverpool were seemingly beaten at half-time in the European Cup final against Milan, their supporters sang You'll Never Walk Alone as though their lives depended on it. This was an alternative miracle yet, in many respects, it was Fulham's Istanbul moment.

Their campaign has been the stuff of fairytale. It feels as though the 3-0 victory over Vetra in Vilnius, in the first leg of the third qualifying round, was from a different season. It almost was. The date of the tie was 30 July.

Fulham have played 18 games in the rebranded Europa League but their joy is that there is still a 19th to come. Their season will have taken in 63 matches when it finally finishes at Hamburg's Nordbank Arena in the final against Atlético Madrid. It seems as though destiny is dragging them towards the first major trophy of their long history.

Danny Murphy, the captain, had wondered on Wednesday what kind of odds might have been available on Fulham last July. Very long ones. Nobody will bet against them now.

The drama has been unrelenting. There were nervy moments in the final qualifying round, at Amkar Perm in Russia and, in the last act of the group phase, Fulham had to go to the fortress which Basle had created in Switzerland to win. Shakhtar Donestk, the defending champions, were beaten before Juventus, memorably, and Wolfsburg followed suit. Another German scalp has now been claimed. In the heat of the moment it felt as if it had topped the lot.

Fulham, lest anyone forget, almost went out of business in 1987. They played for three seasons, in the mid-90s, in English football's bottom division.

This is only their second foray into Europe, with the first coming in 2002when they gate-crashed the Uefa Cup as winners of the Intertoto. They were knocked out in the third round by Hertha Berlin.

Two generations of Fulham fans had not seen their team involved in as big a game as this because, by common consent, the previous one was the FA Cup final of 1975, when Alec Stock's team lost 2-0 to West Ham. This time there was a victory to savour.

Mohamed Al Fayed, the club's chairman, had started the evening by flicking V-signs at the travelling support, as he ambled past them. He finished it by waving his scarf above his head, in that slightly lugubrious manner of his, as all four sides of Craven Cottage rocked to a delirious beat. They will tell you the result was never in doubt.