Marco Silva pointed to Fulham’s ‘team spirit, togetherness and quality’ after Fulham won a five-goal thriller against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Craven Cottage tonight.
The Whites were indebted to Willian’s second penalty in stoppage time for ending their four match winless run after a ‘resilient’ Wolves outfit had equalised twice in an end-to-end encounter. Silva was pleased with Fulham’s response to his week of preparation following a disappointing defeat at Aston Villa before the international break.
The Fulham head coach told his post-match press conference:
“We wanted to react, after a tough month for us. We wanted a reaction, and we did it. The second half we were much more on the front foot, much more in control of the game. We pushed them back and controlled the game much better. But I have to say that the way we started the game was really good, too. First minute of the game, a very good combination on the right hand side, we almost score.
The way we scored for 1-0 was a very good moment from ourselves. We had the chance to score 2-0 in that combination from a corner, very good save from Sa. The reaction came from Wolves, a moment down the right hand side, where they beat our pressure and we didn’t recover well and didn’t defend well our box when they equalised.
Second half we were much more on the front foot. We knew that they were showing a really good resilience in all the games. The last few games they came back to score, they always show the resilience to come back. Tonight, again, when they were losing 1-0, they drew 1-1, when they were losing 2-1 they drew [level] again. But our team showed the team spirit, the togetherness, the quality – not during the 100 minutes, but some spells. I really believe that we deserve the three points because overall we were the team that tried more to win the game, and wanted more to win the game.”
Silva heaped particular praise on Willian, who maintained his flawless penalty record in the Premier League under huge pressure.
“We know the quality of Willian in that moment. Of course, last season it was my decision in certain moments to not change the penalty taker because it was a player that needed to score to get some more confidence to score in the other moments of the game. We knew that Willian was always a taker for us as well. It was my decision for him to be the taker tonight, and it was nice to see him to take the responsibility. Two penalties, very good moments from him. Overall, his performance was really good, too. It’s important – when you have these type of chances, we must score, and he did it in a very good style.”
