Fulham 0, Crystal Palace 2
Craven Cottage, London
Give Roy Hogdson and his Glaziers round one in this edition of the London Derby; with cross-town rivals and recently promoted Fulham, the reality stinks for the Cottagers after a dose of reality by the visitors.
With the excitement of Premiership football making a return to Craven Cottage here in Fulham, the colossus of West London Town near the Thames River, once again vibrated with the essence of top-flight football.
Still the Whites put on an offensive of a show and putting a defensive halt at times in the course of the match, putting a halt to the offensive push put in by the visiting Eagles, but in the end, these Lilywhites had to surrender.
For manager Slavissa Jokanovic making his full Premiership debut as a manager, after winning the playoff that decided the third squad to come and play in the top flight , now he was exposed to much higher levels of competition.
In addition of seeing how the top flight can be a bit cruel despite your team efforts put in the course of the whole match and in front of your followers never backing up, in the end sheer disappointment was shown in the Serbian.
Still this is just one match and the outcome was not the one expected by the Cottagers in the end, as the league making its start and exposing its levels of competition way different from the ranks of Championship. Another aim of the man of the Balkans is to keep his squad put in this association and next campaign aim for much higher spots.
That is why for Fulham manager netting 12 players in the transfers market with former Magpies forward Aleksandar Mitrovic and Manu loaned Timothy Fonsu- Mensah as some of the notables coming to Craven Cottage.
Returning to today’s match in West London, the Cottagers were a bit resilient and pugnacious towards the posts defended successfully all afternoon long by Wayne Hennessey who earned his pay all afternoon long but in the end, he earned a well-deserved clean sheet.
For the Welsh international stopping cold the likes of Cyrus Christie and Aleksandar Mitrovic coming so close but the Palace defenders stood their ground and deny the locals the pleasure of opening the scoreboard early in the match.
As manager, Jokanović sending an offensive prone 4-3-3 with a frontal attack composed of Andre Schurle, Jean Michael Seri and Aleksandar Mitrovic, for manager Hodgson his response with a 4-4-2 sending in the front the likes of Wilfred Zaha and Christian Benteke.
This match became a shootout duel between these two squads, after halftime the score being tied at zero goals, for sure one of these titans had to do their first move and this were Crystal Palace with a couple of nice plays.
Still I give Fulham the full credit for their push and counter attack that really put the visitor’s defense on the edge with several attempts after two close shoots that could tie the match in the end.
For Crystal Palace this match saw their best of efforts after a close run near relegation, this time they are poised of not going down. As the Eagles first score in the 41’ minute via Patrick Van Aanholt to Jeffrey Schlupp opening the score.
Moreover, later in the 79’ minute Aaron Wan- Bissaka passing to an opportune Wilfred Zaha to seal the deal and silence the whole of Craven Cottage in the end, leaving with three valuable points and win away.
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