Tom Cairney has highlighted Fulham’s strong record in second legs of semi-finals in an interview with the Evening Standard ahead of tonight’s crunch League Cup clash against Liverpool.
The Fulham captain feels the experience of leading the Whites to two play-off final victories in his time at the club will help – especially as they overturned a single-goal deficit against Derby County at Craven Cottage in 2018.
“A play-off semi-final is two legs and then a final — kind of the situation we’re in now. In 2018, we were trailing after the first leg to Derby but ended up winning. Something like that tonight would be nice. I’ve missed Wembley … and Liverpool have had enough finals!”
The Scottish international is no doubt about the challenge lying ahead of Marco Silva’s side this evening.
“They [Liverpool] are definitely the best team in England at the minute, one of the best in the world. We need to have a top game and them an off-night — then anything can happen.”
Cairney, who signed a contract extension last month to take him into a tenth season with the Cottagers, says the future is bright under Silva.
“The manager has done an incredible job and the owners have always backed the team. When I first came here [in 2015], it was in a much worse position than it is in now. Joao Palhinha has been a revelation, Mitro was fantastic, and you can’t look away from Tim Ream and there are always good people that you don’t know about in clubs that help it come back to a good place from the dark times. Leading Fulham out in a domestic cup final would be insane. Actually lifting a trophy, that would be everything.”
