If the presence of Fulham in the quarter-finals of European competition seems a wonderful incongruity, then it is apt that the scorer of the goal that capped last Thursday's sensational comeback against Juventus was Clint Dempsey.
Apt too that the American had begun on the bench before making his mark with a breathtaking lob. Because this is a pleasingly unusual player who throughout his career has wrenched improbable success from inauspicious starting points.
"Soccer" may be perceived as a sport for the affluent in the United States, but that is not Dempsey's background. His childhood home was a trailer in his grandparents' garden in Nacogdoches, a small town in East Texas whose greatest claim to fame is that most of the debris from the doomed space shuttle Challenger fell on it.
Young Clint had a go at all the traditional American sports, but by the age of 10 it was clear his calling was football, which he played with Hispanic kids on nearby wasteland.
The problem was that the nearest club, the Longhorns, was a three-hour drive away in Dallas. Clint was snapped up after a trial, but had to quit playing for the club at the age of 12, as the costs became prohibitive for his parents, especially as his 16-year-old sister, Jennifer, was in the early, expensive stages of a professional tennis career.
Clint was disappointed. Soon, he and his family were to be devastated - later that year his sister suffered a brain aneurism and died.
"It's something you can never get over and it's sad it takes something like that to make you appreciate everything in your life," Dempsey told The Guardian in 2007.
This unwelcome reminder of life's ephemeral nature seemed to reinforce his determination to succeed.
In his teens he returned to Dallas and from there, in 2004, he was drafted into Major League Soccer by New England Revolution, managed by the former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol.
His surges from midfield, eye for goal and willingness to try the unconventional made him an instant success.
In 2006 Charlton tried to sign him, but their £750,000 bid was rejected. The following year Chris Coleman signed him for Fulham for double that amount.
Over the past three seasons Dempsey, playing mainly in midfield, has scored more Premier League goals, 19, than any other Fulham player.
Underpinning his skill, and his popularity with fans, is unquenchable tenacity - this season he has made more tackles than all other Premier League forwards bar two (Bolton's Kevin Davies and Birmingham's James McFaadden).
When we consider that in 2007 he played two matches for New England with a broken jaw, it is no surprise that his winner against Juventus came while he is still working his way back from a seven-week layoff with knee damage.