The Cottagers condemned nine-man United to their second successive defeat thanks to a penalty from Danny Murphy and a late second from substitute Zoltan Gera.

United had Paul Scholes sent off for saving Bobby Zamora's header with his hands and substitute Wayne Rooney also saw red for a second bookable offence seconds after Gera's strike.

Socceroo Schwarzer was among Fulham's heroes after making a sensational double save midway through the second half as Roy Hodgson's side blew the title race wide open.

The Fulham keeper prevented Park Ji-Sung and Rooney from putting United back on level terms and now Schwarzer insists Fulham can qualify for Europe if they can reproduce that kind of form in the remaining eight games.

"When you think about what Fulham went through last season, to be where we are at this stage of the season is a credit to everyone at the club," said Schwarzer.

"All we want to try and do now is finish in the top half of the table and make it into a very, very good season for us. Anything's possible.

"I'm hoping for two of the top four teams to be in the FA Cup final so another place goes to the position in the league, and that opens it up for a lot of teams around us to vie for those extra positions for the UEFA Cup.

"If we can continue this sort of form in the upcoming games who knows what will happen."

Fulham thoroughly deserved their victory over United but Schwarzer tried to play down his amazing double save.

He saved at point blank range from Park and then flung himself at Rooney's effort to keep the home side ahead.

"I could see out of the corner of my eye that someone was standing there, so I turned and just threw myself - luckily it just hit me," added Schwarzer.

"The second one they shot back across goal but I was lucky enough to get my feet to it. It was a bit lucky but I'm happy to make the saves and happy we won the game.

"I think we've played pretty consistently all season. There's been one or two games along the way where we haven't been satisfied with how we've played but we've generally played very well. We haven't got the results at times we deserved.

Against United it was probably one of those days where everything fell into place for us.

"We were a little lucky with one or two decisions but I think we deserved to win. I think the feeling from kick-off was that if we didn't get something out of the game it was never going to happen for us."

But despite putting United to the sword in an emphatic fashion, the Fulham keeper still believes Sir Alex Ferguson's side will collect the title once more.

"You could see even with 10 men they are a world class side," added Schwarzer. "You've got to be on your toes. If you can get a scalp of Man Utd's calibre you're on a winner and they're the ones that look bad.

"But that's why they're one of the best teams in the world, if not the best team in the world. It's a fantastic result.

"I suppose from the title side of things, it's still in their own hands. They're still a world class side. We were lucky in that we got them on an off day and things went well for us.

"But all we're concerned about is how we're playing and for us it was vitally important to get to 40 points as quickly as possible.

"From day one we've been encouraged to play football, no matter who we play against.

"We showed that early on in the season when we played against Arsenal at home and played very good football against them. We're not one of those teams that launch it and try and turn teams around to put them under pressure.

"We try and play football whenever we can and against United that all came together - as it has for a large part of the season so far."