Ipswich 1-3 Fulham

Fulham booked their place in the Quarter-Finals of the Carabao Cup with a comfortable win over Ipswich Town on Wednesday evening.

A goal early in the first half from Harry Wilson was supplemented by a goal early in the second from Rodrigo Muniz and a third from Tom Cairney, before Elkan Baggott got the hosts a goal back.

There were eight changes deployed in the midst of a busy week for Fulham. Most notably Luc De Fougerolles made his first competitive start, whilst in other news Muniz led the line, Marek Rodák and Fodé Ballo-Touré got some more Cup action, and Cairney was back in to captain the side.

The Whites started on the front foot and snuck in behind enemy lines down the right early on when Calvin Bassey’s beautiful ball over the top was perfectly cushioned down on the run by Wilson. His cross had to be put out for a corner, but nothing came from it in the end.

The early good work paid off and Fulham were ahead after eight minutes. Great work from Muniz in the build-up dragged some defenders out, before Bobby De Cordova-Reid put that to use to switch it to Wilson, who was on his own. With only the goalkeeper to beat, our Welsh winger kept his cool to round Christian Walton and score into a vacant net.

Marco Silva’s men could smell blood and pushed for a quickfire second. Ballo-Touré’s strong running down the left allowed him to get a cross in which was deflected onto the crossbar and eventually cleared.

Ipswich were bound to threaten and did soon after when Kayden Jackson collected a loose ball and got a shot off, but Rodák was equal to it with a smart reflex save.

Andreas Pereira came close half-an-hour in after some nice link-up between Cairney and De Cordova-Reid. Our Brazilian midfielder picked up the ball 30 yards from goal and attempted the spectacular, and his left-footed shot glided narrowly past the post.

Before the first half was up there was another big Fulham chance, this time courtesy of Calvin Bassey. His sliced shot from the edge of the box hit the ‘keeper before dramatically bouncing back off the inside of the post and out.

Fulham started the second like they did the first... with a goal. Wilson drove forwards with aggression before playing it to Pereira on the right, whose low driven cross put it on a plate for his good friend Muniz to poke home.

Wilson had been causing havoc all game and did again next with yet another aggressive run up field. This time he was tackled in the box, but the ball fell kindly to De Cordova-Reid, who saw his ping at goal blocked.

With just over 20 minutes to play Silva gave things a shake up, bringing on Harrison Reed, Alex Iwobi and Raúl Jiménez to replace the potent trio of Pereira, Wilson and Muniz.

One of those subs made an almost-instant impact to help Fulham to their third goal of the evening, in the shape of Raúl. His hold-up play allowed De Cordova-Reid a free passage to charge down the right before squaring it to Cairney, who drove his shot past Walton.

Moments later and there was a goal at the other end this time, as substitute Baggott nodded home a corner to deny Fulham a clean sheet.

De Cordova-Reid was another player in white to be causing problems for the opposition all game, and went close to getting a warrented goal when he volleyed Iwobi's layoff goalwards, requiring a solid save to keep him out.

Omari Hutchinson had a decent opportunity to make things slightly more uncomfortable for Fulham when he blasted a shot in the box over the bar with normal time almost up.

In the end Fulham held out professionaly and calmly to secure their place in the next round of the competition.