Fulham head coach Marco Silva heaped praise upon his players after the Whites made it to the League Cup semi-finals for the first time in the club’s history with a penalty shoot-out victory over Everton.
Tosin Adarabioyo tucked away the decisive penalty to send the Cottagers into the last four after a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park. A beaming Silva told his post-match press conference:
“We are all delighted, no doubt about it. It was clearly our aim to come here and to go through in the competition, and we did it. We knew before the match that it is going to be really tough, a proper cup tie. I know what it means to play here at Goodison when they are in a good moment, when they are in good form, when everybody’s on the same page, and we felt that tonight.
Our second half was more difficult, I have to say. In the first half we kept the ball more and we played more in our way, we had the capacity to keep some possession, to calm down the game, to not let the game go always in their physicality. I felt the home support always there and I know how they can lift them every time in the moments that they can be struggling in the game. Even after we scored the [goal to make it] 1-0, the support was always there.
Second half we struggled a little bit, we were not able to keep the ball, we gave the ball away many times, and of course they sustained the pressure. I believe that we defended our box well until they equalised in a moment when we were really under pressure, a moment when I was preparing a tactical change.
I really believe that after the [equaliser at] 1-1, when we changed the system to five at the back, we started to control a little bit more. The game started to be a bit broken – chances for us and for them. The last ten minutes was really tense. And, as I said, a proper cup tie.”
Silva was particularly pleased with how his side kept their cool during the penalties, especially after Bobby De Cordova-Reid’s effort was saved by Jordan Pickford – with Bernd Leno smothering Andre Onana’s spot-kick to take the tie into sudden tie before Tosin slotted home imperiously in front of the Gwladys Street End after Idrissa Gana Gueye had hit the post.
“I have to mention, in a tense evening, the way our players kept the composure in that penalty shoot-out. It’s always a really tough moment when you play away from home. [It was a] Huge moment from Bernd when he kept us in the game with the fifth penalty from Onana. I’m really delighted because it’s not easy to keep the composure, the quality in the penalty shootout like we did.
Congratulations for the players, for the fans that were here tonight. We achieved something that the club never, never, never did in the past. We want more, but we are really delighted for the moment that we are living right now, but we want more. Now we are going to play the Semi-Finals, with the dream to go and play at Wembley.”
