Fulham’s hopes of reprising their FA Cup final appearance from fifty years ago were extinguished by the excellent of one of their old schoolboy starlets. Ebere Eze had a spell at Motspur Park after being released by Arsenal aged thirteen and was the difference as Crystal Palace cruised to a league victory at Craven Cottage last month and the gifted Greenwich-born number ten bent in a brilliant opener as Oliver Glasner’s Eagles eased in the last four of the world’s oldest club cup competition.
This tie between two London rivals who have never lifted a major trophy followed the template of February’s Premier League meeting. Fulham, fired up by a raucous reception from the Hammersmith End, began brightly and had the lion’s share of the ball and the territory. On another day, their lively start would have brought a reward as Rodrigo Muniz, preferred to Raul Jimenez up front, curled a finish wide of the far post after terrifically turning his marker and beating a pair of Palace defenders. Jefferson Lerma nodded a corner away from just in front of Calvin Bassey and, on another day, Adam Wharton might have been sent off for a second yellow card after kicking out at Muniz having already been caused for a rash tackle on Willian.
Palace weathered the storm, seeing their former centre half Joachim Andersen having a drive deflected wide and Andreas Pereira putting a presentable chance wide, and could have taken the lead when Lerma lashed a 25-yard strike against Leno’s crossbar from a half-cleared free-kick. Fulham failed to heed the warning and Eze underlined his England credentials by jinking inside Sasa Lukic and bending a brilliant low strike past Leno’s despairing drive and in off the far post.
That goal knocked the stuffing out of the Cottagers but worse was to come four minutes later. Eze won the ball from Andersen, dashed down the left flank and exploited Sander Berge’s reluctance to shut him down by picking out Ismaila Sarr’s intelligent run and the Senegalese international flicked a header into Leno’s net. That gave Glasner’s side the opportunity to protect their comfortable cushion – and the visitors did far more than that, adding a third fifteen minutes from time when substitutes Daichi Kamada and Eddie Nketiah combined. The former Arsenal forward squeezed a shot through the legs of Leno, a former team-mate, after Bassey had lingered too long in pushing up to play the striker offside.
Fulham were well beaten in the end – for the second time in six weeks by their south east London neighbours. Silva’s attempt to gee up his side at half time delivered precious little in terms of a goal threat. Their best chance fell the way of Bassey, who couldn’t convert a corner from close range, as a combination of Lerma and Sarr scrambled the ball clear. Palace deserve great credit for their fortitude, typified by the consistency of Chris Richards at the heart of their defence, but it felt far too straightforward. Silva’s side don’t have long to recover from this false dawn with a testing trip to Arsenal coming up on Tuesday. One door to continental qualification may have closed, but the Whites will need to pick themselves up quickly with tough tests against Liverpool and Chelsea to follow.
The most frustrating element of this missed opportunity will be that their defensive mistakes allowed one of their old youngsters to take this tie away from them in a flash. Silva urged his players to seize their opportunity to write a new chapter in the history of London’s oldest football club, but this flat display was not how he would have envisaged marking his 500th match in management. Palace were rampant by the end and might have scored even more having enjoyed their lunchtime stroll along the Thames.
FULHAM (4-2-3-1): Leno; Castagne, A. Robinson (R. Sessegnon 69), Andersen, Bassey; Lukic (Traore 62), Berge; Iwobi (Cairney 82), Willian (Jimenez 69), Pereira (Smith Rowe 62); Muniz. Subs (not used): Benda, Cuenca, Diop, Reed.
CRYSTAL PALACE (3-4-2-1): Henderson; Guehi, Richards, Lacroix; Munoz (Clyne 87), Mitchell, Wharton (Kamada 70), Lerma; Sarr (Devenny 87), Eze (Franca 90); Mateta (Nketiah 70). Subs (not used): Turner, Chilwell, Kporha, Esse.
BOOKED: Wharton, Richards, Lacroix, Clyne.
GOALS: Eze (34), Sarr (38), Nketiah (75).
REFEREE: Darren England (Doncaster).
ATTENDANCE: 26,222.
Silver lining. Maybe we don’t need to worry yet about Silva being poached by a ‘big club’. On today’s showing it will be Glasner who the media will be touting as the next Spurs gaffer.
Seems like we learned nothing from the league game against Palace.
It must be abundantly clear to everyone that Fulham are a No.10 away from being a really good side. Cunha and now Eze have shown the difference they make compared to Pereira, who is two rungs below their standard.
Lets be honest. We do not possess the kind of player that could turn the game on its end like Palace have. Eze is simply of another level. Pereira was really poor again today, but grandpa Willian or DJ Iwobi werent much better. We did not deserve anything from this match, and on today’s showing it seems that this will be another anonymous season sitting comfortably in the mid table safety. We can complain all night long about the ref not spotting Lerma stopping Andresen’s shot with his arm, or that Wharton should have been sent off, but the truth is Palace deserve their second win at the Cottage. Very frustrating for us Fulham fans but also for our Gaffer who must be listening to the calls of Tottenham with more interest.
For the second season on the trot, we go out of a cup at the quarter final stage with a whimper.
For 20 minutes or so, we looked as though we had learnt a lesson from the last Palace game but we slipped back into the slow, languid build up play that, as per six weeks ago, allowed Palace to get players back behind the ball so effortlessly.
I can’t remember the last time that Iwobi had even a half decent performance and, IMO, he shouldn’t have started today. How he stayed on the pitch for 80 minutes is beyond me.
Add to that a shockingly poor game from Pereira and Antonee Robinson, perhaps hampered by the tendon injury that saw him pull out of the US squad, unable to find a single Fulham player with any of his crosses. When he was eventually subbed, he looked like he couldn’t get off the pitch quickly enough.
As for Sessegnon getting the armband, can the club go any lower in its disregard for the captaincy? Nothing against the player but…
71% possession and zero creativity.
12 corners -taken by THREE different players -and we still couldn’t find a Fulham player with any of them.
There is something fundamentally wrong with this team and we now face a run of difficult games in the Premiership that will, almost certainly, see us end up where we belong -mid table or thereabouts.
I wonder if Siva was hoping for the best as he wasn’t wearing his lucky underpants today. His tactics were simply, fingers crossed and hope for the best.
Apart from the first 20 minutes or so. Palace saw off our powder puff attack and midfield,taking control of the game
Our right flank was continually exposed, with Castagne too often up field not in his primary position of full back.
2 – 0 down at half time and again Silva waits until 63 minutes before changing the team around, but I was surprised that he didn’t go his usual change, Raul for Rodrigo, but instead he brought on the wonder boy Smith Rowe for the ineffectual Periera with the same end result.
This performance was totally unacceptable,we obviously did not learn anything when they beat us a month ago From Leno thru to Muniz I can not find a positive the Substitutions were inept Palace were first to the ball everytime and wanted it more bringing on ESR hoping he will make an impact was taking the Pxxx out of the supporters and it annoyed me if Perreira could not deliver in the 10 role then ESR role certainly won’t what’s happened to Iwobi? Also Palace are not predicable as some teams are and we made mistakes all over the pitch don’t know about Tuesday against Arsenal or Liverpool on Sunday knowing Fulham they will probably win both games then all will be rosey in the garden again
Time to drop some of the dead wood and give our youngsters a full game they can’t be any worse than the ones Silva keeps picking. At least the youngsters will give us 100 percent effort.
Pereira inconsistent mainly poor sell him and get soe decent money in the summer. Willian past his sell by date., ESR a waste of time and looks like he is putting on weight. Castagne not up to it defensively. Need a new Right Back big priority Iwobi off the boil maybe give him a game in midfield rather than on the wing. Try Playing Sessegnon on the wing bring in King .A very poor performance all round nobody wanted to take Palace players nor did not shoot from outside the box . Nearly all passes were sideways or backwards. All very Powder Puff stuff