STEFAN FUL OF FIGHT!

Johansen vows to scrap to the end

FULHAM’S Stefan Johansen has heaped the pressure on Cardiff as the two teams prepare for a Premier League shootout.

Both clubs go head-to-head in a thrilling Championship finale where winner takes all.

Third-placed Fulham are at Bir mingham and second-placed Cardiff are at home to Reading with the prize an enormous Premier League jackpot on the line. Fulham’s Norway midfielder, 27, said: “The pressure is on Cardiff.

“We’re unbeaten in 24 games, have got 91 points and if they win and we’re in the play-offs then good luck to them. “But we’ve paid the price for previous defeats and have learned our lesson.” Johansen has a tattoo inked into his arm that says, ‘To win is not everything. It is the only thing’.

He won three titles with Celtic but knew his career would not be complete without a tilt at the Premier League. “I joined here to fulfil that dream,” he added.

He was part of the Stromsgodset team that won the title on the final day and in the Fulham side that lost to Reading in the Championship semi-final play-off a year ago, not long after Norway lost to Hungary in the dying minutes to ruin their Euro Championship hopes. He said: “I know the pain. Hopefully, I have learned from it. And my team-mates. We’re excited. “These are the games that you want to be playing in and it’s a massive game for us. It’s going to be a fun day. “Cardiff can slip up, of course. Everything can happen in football. I’ve been in this situation a couple of times so I do know things can always happen.

“But our only focus is on our game. The rest is not in our hands.

“I would be lying if I said I did not look regularly at the table. You are affected by friends, family, the people around you who will always be saying how close you are.

“But the only way to get the right focus is to concentrate on the next game. That’s what we have done brilliantly and that’s why we are on such a good run.

“The confidence within the group is high and I think that shows in our football.

“We went 1-0 down against Sunderland recently but we all feel so confident we are going to create enough chances to win the game. It’s just fun to be a Fulham player at the moment.

“I know if we do well players might leave. It can happen. That’s football. But the main focus of everyone in the dressing room right now is to get promoted with Fulham and play Premier League football with Fulham. That’s the focus.

“The more you are involved in these sort of games, the more you learn.

“Birmingham will be tough. They have changed the manager and we are fully aware of what their strengths are but we mainly focus on ourselves and if we play as well as we know we can do, then we have a fair chance to beat anybody in this league.

“Third time lucky would be nice. It’s not that I don’t want to play in the play-offs, it’s just it would be fantastic to get automatic and then I can plan my holidays.”