Fulham 0-2 Burnley

Fulham fell to defeat on a tough Saturday afternoon at a Christmassy Craven Cottage.

Wilson Odobert got Burnely ahead right at the start of the second half, before Sander Berge doubled the lead twenty minutes later.

After the Carabao Cup success on Tuesday Marco Silva kept the rotation going bringing in Tom Cairney and Timothy Castagne to start in place of Harrison Reed and Kenny Tete. Meanwhile, Willian was out of the squad through injury.

Burnley had the game’s first real sight of goal after six minutes, when Vitinho’s cross almost found the head of Lyle Foster if not for some smart defending by Castagne.

Fulham got on the front foot thereafter and had the first shot on goal 13 minutes in, when Harry Wilson weaved his way past a few defenders down the right before poking an effort towards the net which James Trafford had to parry. João Palhinha and Alex Iwobi both then had attempts of their own as Fulham pushed for the opener.

Andreas Pereira went close with a free-kick he’d won himself 30 yards from goal which took a deflection off a teammate to almost creep in at the far post, but nothing came of it in the end.

A pinpoint long-range ball from Tosin’s left foot got Iwobi on his bike down the flank. He did well to hold it up before slotting Antonee Robinson through and a few prods towards goal caused more trouble for the Clarets before it was cleared.

Another searching ball over the top was next as the Whites looked to go ahead, this time Palhinha’s first time pass found Rodrigo Muniz whose cannoned shot was narrowly off target.

Foster had Burnley’s best opportunity of the half with a minute before it’s close after being played through by Odobert, but Tosin did well to stand him up and block the threat.

A last-gasp Fulham flurry ended a goalless half when another blast from Iwobi came from some corner chaos, but in the end Burnley had enough bodies in the way of the goal to prevent the deadlock being broken before the break.

Vincent Kompany’s side came flying out of the blocks in the second half and were ahead within moments of the restart, when Odobert played a one-two with Foster before curling it past Bernd Leno to put his side in front.

Fulham struggled to create any sort of clear-cut chances despite dominating the ball and paid the price when Berge broke away and added a second for Burnley with 25 minutes to go.

Fresh from coming on, Bobby De Cordova-Reid teed up a cross towards fellow substitute Carlos Vinicius, who stooped down to header it but Trafford stood firm.

Robinson got in behind enemy lines next after some silky link-up between Iwobi and Vinicius, but his ping towards goal was kept out by another Burnley block as the Whites attempted to get back into the contest.

Castagne got himself to the byline before blasting one at the Burnley 'keeper with the clock ticking down, but things weren't falling for Fulham this afternoon and Vinicius summed that up by putting his follow up over the bar.

In the end the game was seen out by the visitors, and Fulham will look to bounce back on Boxing Day in Bournemouth.