Martin Jol professed himself ‘proud’ of his players after Fulham fought back from two goals down to earn a point at Arsenal this afternoon.
The Fulham manager lauded his team’s endeavour and insisted that, after Dimitar Berbatov’s second goal of the afternoon had seen the visitors take a remarkable lead at the Emirates, a defeat – which looked likely after Phil Dowd awarded Arsenal a penalty in the final minute of time – would have been harsh on his battlers.
I am proud of the way we played. We started so well and then went 2-0 down, which was harsh. I thought we were equally as good as Arsenal.
It was very disappointing to be 2-0 down if you saw how my team played, especially in the second half … we broke them, we dominated them. They are a good team but, but it would have been very harsh if they scored the penalty.
Jol praised the link-up play between Berbatov and Bryan Ruiz, who is excelling in the ‘number 10’ role behind the Bulgarian, that caused Arsenal so many problems this afternoon.
He scored two goals again today. He caused them a problem. Bryan has probably had his best game since he joined us. The only [disappointing] this is is that we could have lost the game in the dying seconds. Before that, we could have won.
The Dutchman also marvelled at Berbatov’s almost nonchalant penalty-taking prowess.
It was pretty cool. He did it the other day and I said ‘How many other players in England would wait for the keeper?’ and, to be honest, there is not one player who could do that. It was brave. He said afterwards ‘You see? I can do that’.
