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Atletico meets Fulham in Wednesday's Europa League final without a title since 1996 but knows attempts to attack too vigorously will likely be exploited by an unheralded side that this season has beaten Shakhtar Donestsk, Juventus, Wolfsburg and Hamburg.

"They have excellent players," Atletico coach Quique Sanchez Flores 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.

"And we need to be courageous."

But Fulham may be going into the biggest match in its history without its leading scorer after Bobby Zamora sat out training Tuesday.

Zamora has an Achilles' problem and sat out Tuesday's afternoon training session. He could not be seen with the rest of the Fulham squad even though manager Roy Hodgson said he was confident that the striker would be able to play.

Ireland winger Damien Duff did train with his teammates at Hamburg Arena after recovering from a leg injury.

"Both players trained yesterday and that was very, very positive," Hodgson said. "I've been given no indication that they're suffering from a reaction so my hope is that they'll be available tomorrow."

Zamora's absence may have been to protect him against possible injury or to keep Atletico guessing about Fulham's likely lineup.

But speaking ahead of the session, the usually straightforward Hodgson had said he was hoping Zamora would train normally.

Zamora, who has scored eight times to help Fulham to a first European final, has not played since the 2-1 semifinal win over Hamburg on April 29, when Duff was also hurt.

If he does not recover sufficiently to play, Zamora could be replaced in attack by Erik Nevland, who will be playing his last match before returning to former club Viking Stavanger at the end of the season.

Fulham's midfield options are richer, with Clint Dempsey, Duff, Dickson Etuhu, Simon Davies and Zoltan Gera all vying for spots on the team.