Fulham’s under 21s exited the Premier League International Cup at the semi-final stage last night after being beaten 2-1 by a brilliant PSV Eindhoven outfit at Motspur Park.
Steve Wigley’s side almost pulled off an astonishing late comeback after Terry Ablade had halved the hosts’ deficit following second half goals inspired by the superb Isamel Saibari, who scored one and made the other, but the young Whites fell agonisingly short after an outstanding effort. The typically technically accomplished Dutch outfit deserved their spot in the final, having kept the ball impressively, and carved out several chances to take the lead.
The lively Saibari had PSV’s first opportunity, testing the reflexes of George Wickens having cut in from the left after latching onto an intelligent ball from Mohammed Nassoh. The Moroccan under-23 international kept finding pockets of space with his clever movement and sped away from the Fulham back line to force another sharp save from Wickens twenty minutes in. Fulham were warming to their task with Luke Harris seeing a header from a threatening cross by the recalled Devan Tanton turned over the bar by visiting goalkeeper Niek Schiks.
Sonny Hilton and Martial Godo combined brilliantly before the former Margate winger shot wide of goal before Shicks saved superbly from Harris after Ablade had accelerated away from two PSV tacklers along the right flank. But Saibari couldn’t be kept quiet for long and he skipped around Wickens on the stroke of half time but saw his goalbound clearance commendably off the line by the covering Welsh under-21 international Jay Williams.
Fulham made a strong start to the second period, with Godo driving forward after winning possession back from PSV in their own half. He darted away from a defender and forced a fine save from Schiks. PSV went straight up the other end and opened the scoring with Saibari guiding in a deft header from Nassoh’s floated free-kick. The home side kept battling with Godo shooting straight at Schicks after lovely interplay between Harris, Hilton and Ablade.
The visitors were now content to keep the ball and look to hit Fulham on the break as Wigley’s charges pushed numbers forward in search of an equaliser. PSV scored the decisive second goal eleven minutes from time when Saibari turned provider to play in centre forward Jason van Duiven, whose calm finish found the net via the inside of the post.
The young Whites kept fighting until the end and Ablade set up a grandstand finish just two minutes later when he nodded home a Hilton corner. Ablade nearly grabbed a second from a superb Olly Sanderson ball, but PSV were deserved winners on the balance of play.
FULHAM UNDER 21s (4-2-3-1): Wickens; Tanton (Sanderson 75), Araujo, C. Robinson, Williams; Okkas (de Fougerolles 62), Dibley-Dias; Hilton, Godo, Harris; Ablade. Subs (not used): Allen, McCoy-Splatt, Works, McFarlane.
BOOKED: Godo, Hilton, Dibley-Dias, Araujo.
GOAL: Ablade (81).
PSV EINDHOVEN UNDER 21s (4-3-3): Schiks; Comenencia, Seelt, Leysen, Jiménez; Tielemens, Colyn (Babadi 69), Nassoh; Savio (Fofana 61), Saibari, van Duiven. Subs (not used): Tytens, Steur, Priske, van den Heuvel, Arts.
GOALS: Saibari (48), van Duiven (79).
REFEREE: Aaron Jackson.
Excellent account of the game. A PSV dad (father of their excellent No 3) said how impressed he was with our team, especially as ours was much younger than theirs. It was a classy game. I thought Luke Harris was the stand-out player – he’s improved a lot this season.
Fulham worked very hard but I feel a lack of playing against men does not tell us if their any good.As we have moved up a division at the moment it shows up our team at a higher level the quality we lack to compete.Brentford B game will show us whether our approach to youth policy to Brentford’s b team approach which is the best for a smaller club.We don’t seem to have a young dembelle,Harvey Elliott or Fabio knocking at the door at the moment.
Michael Tanfield, I am not sure if you are aware but the team Fulham U21’s played yesterday was actually a PSV B a team with older players who actually plays in the second division in Nederlands plus Savio a trick Brazilian winger who plays in the first team too he actually costs arround 6 million euros or more. Regarding to your question I believe you have already answered by mentioning 3 of many players that came from the Fulham academy system Dembelle, Harvey Elliott, Fabio plus Ryan Sessegnon
Marcus Bettinelli, Marek Rodak etc those names already proves Fulham academy system is better than Brentford B team finally please also note that Fulham FC Under 21 has already beaten Brentford B team in a friendly match last year
In my view the Brentford B team system is a joke as they do not compete in a league like the other B teams in Europe they just play friendlies even with non league teams
Please watch more matches from Fulham’s academy and I am sure you are going to see the next Fabio Carvalho .. we have quite a few to be honest in every age group …
Come on you whites !