Fulham face an uphill battle to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Europa League after suffering a 3-1 defeat by Juventus in an exciting first leg clash in Turin on Thursday night.
Juve stunned their visitors with an early goal from Nicola Legrottaglie and then moved two up just after the midway point of the first half courtesy of Jonathan Zebina's long-range drive.
Fulham halved their deficit with a deflected effort from Dickson Etuhu only for Juve to restore their two-goal advantage just before the break through David Trezeguet, who volleyed home at the second attempt.
And, somewhat surprisingly, that's the way it stayed, with the second half proving a rather uneventful affair until Juventus wasted a couple of fine opportunities late on to put the result beyond all doubt.
As it is, though, Fulham remain in contention, which is something of an achievement given that they found themselves two goals down after less than half an hour of play.
Juve's opener arrived just nine minutes in, Legrottaglie rising majestically to meet a corner from the right and beat Mark Schwarzer with a sublime downward header.
Fulham responded well to the shock of conceding an early goal and Simon Davies squandered an excellent opening when he miscued horribly from 12 yards out after being picked out by Damien Duff's cut-back.
However, Juventus were still running the show in midfield and they doubled their advantage on 25 minutes, Zebina breezing through two desperately weak challenges from Davies and Etuhu before taking advantage of Brede Hangeland's inexplicale decision to jump out of his way by unleasing a stunning 25-yard strike which rocketed in off Schwarzer's right post.
The visitors now needed a stroke of good fortune to get them back into the game and they got one in the 36th minute, with Etuhu's hopeful effort from the edge of the box beating Alex Manninger thanks to a wicked deflection off Legrottaglie.
Fulham then pressed for an equaliser and Hangeland, up for a corner, drew a fine save out of Manninger. However, despite the Cottagers' growing confidence, it was Juve who struck next and, crucially, right on the stroke of half time.
Fulham failed to deal with a corner from the left and the ball dropped at the feet of Trezeguet. The French hitman's first strike on goal struck the post but the ball came straight back to him and his second effort found the bottom left corner.
The second half was far less entertaining, with Juve seemingly content to invite a rather blunt Fulham side on to them in the hope of nicking another goal on the break. The ploy nearly worked as Diego drew a fine save out of Schwarzer with an effort from outside the box late on and from the resulting corner Vincenzo Iaquinto somehow headed over with the goal at his mercy.
As a result, Fulham left Turin down but not out.