Jaoa Palhinha described his stunning opening goal against Leeds United last night as the best of his career so far.

The Portuguese international found the back of the net with a brilliant curling effort from almost thirty yards out after stripping Marc Roca off possession after a poor pass from Tyler Adams. The sensational strike from distance was Palhinha’s fourth since signing for Fulham in the summer from Sporting Lisbon – another indication of his dramatic impact since moving to London to work under head coach Marco Silva again.

Palhinha told FFCTV after the final whistle at Craven Cottage.

“I think it is the best goal in my career. The best thing here in this game that I want to mention was the victory. Solomon has scored a great goal as well, like the last game. A really, really nice goal. Of course, I feel happy that I score as well but the most important thing was the victory. It is a nice moment for me – I recover the ball and I look for the goal. I try to do the effect that I put on the ball, so I feel grateful to score and to help the team to win.”

The popular midfielder reiterated the importance of Fulham reaching the last eight of the FA Cup for the first time since 2010.

“We need to keep doing our job like we did [tonight] and we are in the next round. The club has never been in the quarter finals since a long time [ago] so we are really happy as the players, the staff and supporters – and it is really special for the club. We have shown our value by being in the quarter finals and also being sixth in the Premier League. I think we deserve it. We need to keep victory, we have more steps to do. Me and my team mates went to continue and want to keep going. Hopefully, with our supporters and everyone who works here, we will keep our dreams and objectives for this season.”

Palhinha also shared his frustration at being suspended for Fulham’s next two Premier League fixtures after picking up a tenth booking of the season against Wolves last Friday.

“Don’t tell me this please! Of course, I don’t feel happy even this week after the match against Wolves. I know that I have the suspension for the yellow cards [coming up]. Of course, I want to play every game to help my team-mates to win but I know that whoever plays in my position will do the same thing like me and we have a lot of a good players that they can do the things correctly. We are always together. I have ten yellow cards but three of them was clearly not fouls – the Brighton one, one of them was because I jumped into the stand when I scored against Nottingham [Forest] and another against Arsenal was a stupid yellow card. It is what it is. I just want the week and a half to go quickly, because I want to be here [and playing] as much as possible.”