Fulham alive in Europe but now fear lethal Darren Bent

Fulham kept their European hopes alive with this scrappy win but Danny Murphy is already turning his attentions to the threat Darren Bent will pose on Sunday.

Zoltan Gera's header sealed victory over a CSKA Sofia side who offered little up front in the first half and Murphy expects Sunderland to provide a much stiffer test at Craven Cottage.

Murphy's chief concern is Bent, who has already scored nine goals since his £10million move from Tottenham to Sunderland in the summer.

The Fulham captain said of his former Charlton team-mate: "If you switch off once with Darren, he'll kill you. He's a big factor in why Sunderland are where they are in the league.

"I've played with Darren and I'm a big fan of his because the one thing he always does is get goals. You might not see him for 80 minutes in a game but he'll keep running, he'll keep working hard to get his chances, and he'll put one away.

"Sunderland also play with that Steve Bruce tenacity that was evident at Birmingham and Wigan. They've got a great work ethic and I'm expecting a difficult game."

Last night's results means Fulham must win their final Europa League group game at Basle a week next Wednesday in order to join Roma in the last 32.

Fulham certainly made their vital win against CSKA a lot more difficult than it should have been. The Bulgarians were never in it in the first half and ought to have been sunk as early as the seventh minute when Gera, released by Bjorn Helge Riise, tore into the penalty area only to be crudely bundled over by Ivan Ivanov.

But Murphy, back to action after six weeks out with a knee injury, scooped his penalty kick at least two yards over the bar.

"It sounds blase, but I just assumed I'd score," Murphy said. "That's not the way I usually go about my penalties, so I'm a bit disappointed with myself."

Fortunately, Gera was on target seven minutes later when he swooped to head in Riise's cross from the right.

That should have been the signal for the floodgates to open but Simon Davies shaved the wrong side of a post with a low shot, Chris Smalling glanced a header wide and Bobby Zamora had one of those games when he could hardly do a thing right.

Indeed, CSKA, for whom Todor Timonov crashed a long shot against the bar, might have ended Fulham's European adventure with an equaliser had Damien Duff not been in position to clear Spas Delev's shot off the line.

Murphy admitted: "It wasn't pretty but the result was all that mattered. It gives us something to play for in the last game."