Fulham 0-2 Crystal Palace

Fulham were beaten 2-0 by Crystal Palace on a disappointing day at Craven Cottage.

The boys were frustrated by a number of decisions in the first half, not least when a foul not given on Calvin Bassey led to the opening goal, when a corner went in off the unfortunate Joachim Andersen.

The second half didn’t bring any more joy. After the Eagles had a goal disallowed for offside, they did manage to double their lead when Daniel Munoz lashed in at the end of a counter-attack.

For the third Premier League game in a row, Marco Silva named the same XI.

Half chances for Jean-Philippe Mateta and Antonee Robinson aside, it was a low key start to proceedings at a sun-kissed Craven Cottage, though Fulham were enjoying the lion’s share of possession.

Both sides were looking fairly solid in their shape, meaning most shots were of a speculative nature, the best of which came from Ebere Eze on 25 minutes, with Bernd Leno needed to beat away his swerving effort from range.

It was Eze versus Leno again for the game’s next chance, but once more Leno was equal to the England’s man effort, this time pushing away his free-kick on the stretch.

Eze then had a shot deflect over that came about after the referee Robert Jones decided that Bassey had not been fouled in the build-up. It was not the first decision that left the home fans perplexed.

And so it naturally left a bad taste when the subsequent corner ended up in the back of the net, with Will Hughes’ delivery flicking in off Andersen at the near post.

After a slightly disjointed first half, Fulham began the second with purpose. Having won a corner himself, Raúl Jiménez got on the end of Saša Lukić’s set-piece, but saw his diving header deflect wide.

A good forward run from Raúl then saw him bear down on goal after being found by Alex Iwobi, but a superb last ditch tackle from Maxence Lacroix prevented him from squaring to Adama Traoré for a tap-in.

Palace went straight up the other end and thought they’d extended their lead through Mateta’s emphatic finish, but VAR showed that he had just strayed offside prior to latching onto Eze’s backheeled pass.

The Eagles used that decision as fuel and almost did get a second on the hour mark, but Leno made an unbelievable save to repel Lacroix’s point-blank header, with Raúl then making a vital block to keep out Jefferson Lerma’s volley seconds later.

Unfortunately, though, the clincher wasn’t far away. After a shot from substitute Andreas Pereira was blocked, Palace countered through Mateta who rode two challenges before slipping Munoz, who gave Bassey the eyes to create a yard of space and rifle over Leno from a tight angle.

Palace were a threat on the break, with Mateta again the dangerman as he burst through with just under 20 minutes to play, but Leno was out quickly to make the save.

At the other end, Raúl caught a 30 yard volley well, but it clipped Andreas on its way which took it away from the target.

A frustrating afternoon was summed up midway through eight minutes of stoppage time when a deep Andreas free-kick was met by Raúl, who could only nod into the palms of Dean Henderson.

Chalk it down as just one of those days, unfortunately.