Martin Jol keen to praise opposition manager

Jol will be looking for win tonight in Poland (GETTY IMAGES)

Martin Jol is looking forward to facing fellow Dutchman Robert Maaskant when Fulham go head to head with Wisla Krakow in the Europa League tonight.

The pair having come across one another before during their time coaching in the Eredivisie, which included a 6-0 win for Jol's Ajax side against Maaskant's NAC Breda during the 2009/10 season.

The most recent clash between the duo ended 1-1 in January 2010, and Jol was quick to praise his counterpart ahead of this evening's match.

"I think Wisla is a good challenge for him," Jol said.

"It is good for his experience because he is still a young coach [42], although he started when he was 26.

"He is one of the youngest coaches and a big prospect.

"He was champion last year so he is a very good manager.

"He was very young when he started coaching, probably the youngest ever in Dutch football.

"Even then he was pretty successful. They called him the crown prince of Dutch football.

"He is a very intelligent and talented guy."

Maaskant was pleased to see Jol at last night's pre-match press conference, but will be hoping to outsmart his countryman tonight.

"Of course, we know Fulham are a very good side," said Maaskant, whose side have lost their first two Group K matches.

"It has not been very easy to analyse Fulham because they have been changing the line-up many times over the last eight games.

"There are always five players that start but other than that we don't know - for example with [Mousa] Dembele because he had a little injury against Stoke.

"So we are not sure how they are going to play but we have to have our own plan.

"We are not going to change that much because it is not that possible to change a whole system or play totally different.

"Of course we are aware that the result [tonight] is going to be very important for the rest of the games.

"We hope we are smart enough to get a result against maybe a stronger team."

PA