Fulham 0-0 Everton

Fulham and Everton played out one of the more entertaining goalless draws one is likely to see on Tuesday night at the Cottage.

The Whites created more of the chances, but it was our guests who went closest in the first half when they hit the crossbar before seeing Timothy Castagne clear the ball as half of it crossed the line.

Raúl Jiménez went very close at the end of the first 45, before both sides hit the crossbar after the restart through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Castagne headers.

Tosin thought he’d won it late on only to be denied by an unbelievable Jordan Pickford save, before Everton threatened a smash and grab in stoppage time, but Fulham held on for the point which was the very least we deserved.

Marco Silva reverted to the same starting XI that was fielded against Liverpool six days earlier, while the injury to Harry Wilson meant a first Premier League squad appearance for Kristian Šekularac who was named amongst the substitutes.

Fulham might have had a free-kick on the edge of the box inside a minute when Willian took a tumble, but play continued and the ball fell to Raúl Jiménez who drilled a yard over the bar.

At the other end, Jack Harrison sent a good chance wide and Dominic Calvert-Lewin was denied by a brilliant Issa Diop block to continue the lively start to proceedings.

Andreas Pereira then hit one wide from a corner routine, before Jordan Pickford pushed Antonee Robinson’s dangerous right footer round the post.

A glorious opening fell João Palhinha’s way on 21 minutes when he rose to meet a beautiful Andreas free-kick – the Portuguese did well to beat his marker to the ball, but headed just over the bar.

Everton were convinced they’d scored from a free-kick of their own moments later. After Bernd Leno parried Ashley Young’s set-piece, James Tarkowski scuffed one into Diop which caused the ball to spin onto the underside of the bar. It then was all set to bounce in, but Castagne made a vital last-ditch intervention to clear it away before the entire ball could cross the line.

As we passed the half hour mark, Bobby De Cordova-Reid saw a shot blocked at the culmination of a wonderful team move, with Everton countering and producing an off-target Arnaut Danjuma effort, as the end-to-end nature of the contest continued.

Tom Cairney and Willian were on identical wavelengths to create an opening for the latter who saw a shot blocked, before Andreas whistled a dipping strike over.

Raúl will have been disappointed not to have broken the deadlock in the lead up to half-time when Castagne’s wicked shot deflected to him in the six-yard box, but he volleyed agonisingly wide of the far post.

We began the second half with a couple of efforts from range. De Cordova-Reid drew a save from Pickford, but Andreas’ was never testing the England number one.

A Ben Godfrey strike then could have gone anywhere after taking a nick off Diop on its way through but thankfully went behind, with Calvert-Lewis heading against the bar from the subsequent corner as the match somehow remained goalless.

Great pressing from De Cordova-Reid saw us go two-on-one, but Godfrey got back to intercept the attempted square pass to Willian.

We kept up the threat from the corner, but Palhinha sent his left-footed half volley over on the spin.

Rodrigo Muniz had been introduced at the break and was causing problems, not least in the 65th minute when he opened his body up and placed a shot that dropped just the wrong side of the post via a deflection.

It was then Fulham’s turn to hit the bar, with Castagne so unfortunate as he flicked De Cordova-Reid’s header goalwards onto the top of the woodwork.

As 0-0s go, this was a frenetic one, with half the crowd thinking Andreas had scored with quarter of an hour to play, but his shot had actually deflected into the side-netting.

The pressure maintained, with only a world class save from Pickford keeping out Tosin’s header from Willian’s dug cross following the corner.

Pickford was beaten when De Cordova-Reid ran across goal and attempted to divert Robinson’s cutback into the corner, but it rolled an inch wide of the far stick.

The Whites were having to be patient in our attempts to penetrate a stubborn Everton side, and we fashioned one such opening as we entered stoppage time, when Willian waited for the opportune moment to feed De Cordova-Reid who’d come over to the left. He sat up a cross for Muniz, whose header was caught by Pickford.

Although it had been a long while since we’d seen any kind of attacking threat from Everton, they should have won it in the fourth minute of added time, but Beto somehow headed over when meeting Tarkowski’s knock from a corner.

That buoyed the visitors, and after James Garner won a corner, we survived a goalmouth scramble as a combination of Godfrey and Beto failed to convert the ball as it bobbled around in the box.

Between the sides, there were a whopping 46 efforts on goal, which made the scoreline even more peculiar.