Fulham 3-2 Wolves

Fulham came out on the right side of a five-goal thriller with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.

We led on three occasions, firstly when Alex Iwobi swept home early on, though that was soon cancelled out by Matheus Cunha.

The remaining goals were all spot-kicks. Willian was first to convert after the excellent Tom Cairney was fouled, but Wanderers fought back after Hee Chang Hwang won and converted a penalty of his own.

The drama wasn’t over, with VAR clocking that Harry Wilson was fouled in stoppage time, and Willian showing incredible steel to net his second penalty of the night to secure an important victory for his side.

Marco Silva made two changes to the side that were beaten at Villa Park prior to the international break. The enforced one saw Harrison Reed come in for the suspended João Palhinha, while Cairney was preferred to Bobby De Cordova-Reid, in a switch that saw Iwobi move out to the right hand side.

Playing as a winger did not stop Iwobi from drifting inside, though, and on seven minutes he had Fulham in front, converting Antonee Robinson’s centre – a second assist in as many games from Jedi.

Iwobi turned provider a minute later when his volley across the face picked out Raúl Jiménez, but Jose Sa in the Wolves goal denied his former teammate.

Sa was called into action again from the following corner as Fulham maintained their electric start to proceedings, getting his body behind Cairney’s firm strike from 20 yards at the end of a smart training ground routine.

The first we saw of Wolves as an attacking force came of our own making when former Fulham man Mario Lemina intercepted a ball out from the back. He fed Hwang who caught his effort sweetly from the edge of the box, but saw it clip the top of the bar on its way over.

It wasn’t long until Wanderers did restore parity, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde getting beyond Robinson to work space for a dinked cross which picked out the unmarked Cunha in the middle, who was left with a simple header.

After a couple of half chances passed Iwobi and Willian by, the Fulham goal lived a charmed life at a corner, with Bernd Leno clawing the ball away from under the bar, and then some intuitive game-reading from Timothy Castagne allowed him to hack a dangerous cross away from near the line before Cunha could convert.

10 minutes into the second half, Cairney won a huge tackle that had a significant butterfly effect, as he eventually got the ball back from Andreas Pereira, only to be hacked down in the box by Nelsen Semedo.

VAR had a good look at it as, from one angle, it looked like Semedo had got the ball first, but all other camera views showed it was a foul. Willian stepped up, stuttered his run up, and then sent Sa the wrong way to restore his side’s lead.

Good hold-up play from Raúl then allowed Iwobi to burst in on goal, but his fierce strike was brilliantly turned over by Sa, who then denied Andreas from the subsequent corner.

Leno – on his 50th appearance for the Club – had been called into action several times since the restart, making routine saves on each occasion, most notably from Lemina’s firm angled effort on 72 minutes.

He was presented with a much tougher test moments later when Ream brought down Hwang in the area to give Wolves a penalty of their own. Leno got close to Hwang’s effort, but their top scorer put too much power on his kick for the Germany international to keep it out.

Cairney had been running things for his side in midfield, and he tried to give the Whites their third lead of the night when he let fly from range, but he missed the near post by a yard.

Iwobi then did find the target, but his placed effort was too close to Sa.

A dramatic night at Craven Cottage took another twist in stoppage time. Referee Michael Salisbury didn’t initially think João Gomes had fouled Wilson in the penalty area, but VAR suggested he go and have a look at his monitor, as the Wolves midfielder clearly clipped the Fulham substitute.

With the decision reversed, Willian was the coolest guy in London as he put his spot-kick into the other corner this time, after another nonchalant run-up.

With all three penalties requiring VAR checks, there were 12 minutes of stoppage time played in the end, with one dangerous Hwang effort towards the end of that causing some palpitations, but thankfully that landed on the roof of the net, meaning Fulham would hold on to secure a massive three points on a frenetic Monday night in SW6.