Fulham (A) 15/02/25

 

Fulham 2-1 Nottingham Forest

Smith-Rowe 15'   Wood 37'

Bassey 62'

 

After getting through the Carabao cup on penalties against Exeter, the Reds travelled to the capital to maintain their Champions League dreams. The hosts were in midweek action too, snatching a 2-1 away win at Wigan to see them setup a 5^th round tie at Old Trafford.

The class of 21/22 flying high this season. Forest in 3^rd, Bournemouth in 5^th and Fulham in 8^th. Forest, however, have recently have struggled against these sides. Since getting promotion three years ago, the Reds haven’t won at Craven Cottage, falling to 2-0 and 5-0 defeats. At the City Ground, back in September, the Cottagers won 1-0 following a controversial penalty shout; only one of two teams to take 3 points from Trent side this season. Forest’s only win in the last 6 meetings came back in April 24, when the Reds put on a brilliant performance to win 3-1.

The first chance of the game fell to Neco Williams. Anthony Elanga found Williams out on the left. He made his way into the box and cut inside, looking for the bottom left corner but his effort whisked just wide of the post. Moments later, Fulham almost took the lead. Adama Traore received the ball out on the right. Up against Williams, Traore drove to the byline and looped in a cross. Raul Jiminez met the ball first, but his effort went just wide of the left post. Many Fulham fans thought they had scored!

Two minutes later the Cottagers were in front. Once again, the ball was at the feet of Traore on the right. Williams tried to put in the tackle but the winger evaded it and had time to put the cross in, aiming for the far post. Emile Smith-Rowe was running in and beat Morato in the air to head past Matz Sels. In their last 5 games when scoring first, Fulham have avoided defeat. However, here, they would be looking for 2 consecutive wins for the first time since November.

Throughout the rest of the first half, Fulham were all over Nuno’s side. Traore was causing some real problems for the visitors. Fulham nearly doubled their lead but Forest had Matz Sels to thank. The hosts played some good football down the left before finding Lukic in the box. His touch was heavy but Jiminez latched onto it and volleyed towards goal with the outside of his boot. Sels got down brilliantly to save the effort with his fingertips. Despite not playing to their usual standards and being dominated over, Forest found a leveller. Gibbs-White sent a ball forwards looking for his partner Chris Wood. He was up against two white shirts but he managed to hold them off and get to the ball first. He turned and aimed for the bottom left corner from around 15 yards out, which he found with the help of a deflection off Calvin Bassey.  It looked to only be a half chance but the clinical Kiwi took the opportunity to score his 8^th goal in his last 7 Premier League games. Forest did not deserve to be going into the break level.

The second half started more even; Fulham were dominating possession but Forest were a threat on the counter attack. Alex Iwobi was up against Ola Aina on the left but the Forest defender stood his ground so the winger had to pull back to Lukic on the edge of the area. He looked to shoot one way before turning the other but again, Sels was down to make a good save to send it out for a corner. The following corner was whipped in from the right and flicked onto the back post by Jiminez. Bassey got his head to the ball before Aina could clear to send it looping over Sels and into the back of the net. Nuno decided to make substitutions and change formation, however, Forest’s one shot on target of the half was a simple save for Leno.

Forest looked for a late equaliser, Fulham were having to sit back and defend. They were happy to do this and break forward on the counter to kill the game. Traore deserved a goal for his performance and nearly found one. Robinson burst down the left and linked up with some of his teammates before he received the ball back on the byline. His first time cross was headed away by Nikola Milenkovic but only as far as Traore whose first time volley was well saved by Sels. When Forest really needed a chance to take anything from this game, it was the hosts who had the better opportunities in the dying minutes. Leno sent a free kick up the other end of the pitch which Andreas Pereira did well to control as he entered the box. He passed back to Willian who flicked back for an on running Muniz. Sels stopped the effort but the ball landed back to Harrison Reed whose first time effort was once again saved by the Forest goalkeeper. Chaos!

On Saturday, we never looked in the game and you could tell it wasn’t going to be our day. Traore caused us so many problems, but I think the formation didn’t help that. In previous games, Elliot has been able to come out and help Neco but he wasn’t able to do that, leaving Neco in that one v one. We seemed to lack any energy and 8 shots compared to their 24 proves it all. I can’t really give plaudits to anyone but Sels who stopped the scoreline from being 5 or 6. Woody did take his goal well, though. Fulham are a good side so I don’t think we should be too worried and we should look ahead to this difficult run of fixtures we are going to get through. COYR!

 

Fuham: Leno; Castange, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson; Lukic (Reed 83'), Berge; Traore (Willian 90'), Smith-Rowe (Pereira 82'), Iwobi (Sessegnon 90'); Jiminez (Muniz 76')

 

Forest: Sels; Morato (Hudson-Odoi 68'), Milenkovic, Murillo; Williams, Anderson (Jota Silva 85'), Danilo (Sangare 63'), Aina; Gibbs-White; Wood (Awoniyi 82’), Elanga