Fulham continued their sturdy current run towards Nottingham Forest with a hard-fought 1-0 win at Craven Cottage, making it six wins from their final seven Premier League conferences with the Difficult Bushes and ending a run of back-to-back dwelling league defeats, Softfootball studies
Marco Silva’s aspect got here into the sport keen to reply after their midweek Carabao Cup quarter-final loss to Newcastle, and so they additionally carried confidence from an exhilarating 3-2 league win away at Burnley final outing. Nonetheless, it was Forest who nearly struck first, with Igor Jesus losing a golden probability contained in the opening 10 minutes by sweeping over from shut vary.
The Brazilian ahead was then gifted one other alternative after a unfastened Antonee Robinson move fell kindly to him, just for Jorge Cuenca to provide a vital last-ditch block.
What adopted was a scrappy, stop-start contest that hardly ever caught hearth. Fulham struggled to impose themselves, and their greatest opening of the half noticed Raúl Jiménez flip Robinson’s cross into the aspect netting. Simply as the sport appeared set to float right into a goalless break, Fulham had been handed a lifeline in stoppage time when Douglas Luiz clumsily caught Kevin contained in the field.
Jiménez made no mistake from the spot, calmly sending John Victor the improper option to give the hosts a valuable half-time lead and keep his excellent Premier League penalty document.
Forest emerged with extra intent after the interval, clearly fired up, however their issues within the closing third remained. Regardless of having fun with spells of possession and making a number of modifications, Sean Dyche’s aspect struggled to check Bernd Leno or carve out any clear openings. Fulham, in the meantime, seemed snug defending their slender benefit.
The hosts ought to have wrapped issues up late on when Kenny Tete surged down the best and delivered a pinpoint cross for Jiménez, however the striker glanced his header huge from shut vary. Forest threw on Arnaud Kalimuendo in a last-gasp try and salvage one thing, but even prolonged stoppage time couldn’t change the result.
After the sport ended, Fulham shared through its official X deal with, the gamers response to the large win tonight at dwelling, Fulham now sit thirteenth on the desk with 23 factors, 6 factors off a prime 4 place. They posted:
The win lifts Fulham towards the sting of the highest half and retains European hopes alive for a aspect that was not too long ago glancing nervously over their shoulders. For Forest, who arrived in west London boosted by a 2-1 Europa League win over Utrecht, it was a irritating afternoon that highlighted acquainted attacking shortcomings.
