Fulham 0-2 Man City

Fulham ended the season with a hard fought 2-0 defeat by Manchester City at Craven Cottage.

City started well and took the lead through some stunning Ilkay Gündoğan improvisation, but the boys battled back and created good chances for Harry Wilson, Tom Cairney, Andreas Pereira and Adama Traoré.

The second half was another evenly contested 45, but the game was decided through Erling Haaland’s penalty following an unfortunate foul by Saša Lukić.

A disappointing end but it’s another fine campaign in the books for Fulham Football Club.

Marco Silva made four changes to his starting XI for the season closer. After their match-winning influences off the bench at Brentford a week earlier, Cairney and Wilson were drafted in from the off, alongside Jorge Cuenca and Andreas. Calvin Bassey, Sander Berge, Emile Smith Rowe and Alex Iwobi the men to make way.

After having all the ball but only an off target Omar Marmoush free-kick to show for it, City made their control count in the 21^st minute. A strong run into the box from Matheus Nunes ended with Bernd Leno repelling the right-back’s clipped shot, but the ball span towards Gündoğan who executed a stunning overhead kick into the net via the crossbar.

The Fulham response was good, with Wilson requiring a diving save from Ederson, before Adama’s volley of the loose ball was blocked.

Andreas then sprung the offside trap to release Adama with a lofted pass, but the winger was unable to bring it under his spell and Ederson was able to gather.

At the other end, Jeremy Doku opened his body up and looked to bend one inside the far post, but it took a clip off a Kenny Tete heel and dropped behind for a corner.

Cairney had a couple of chances to restore parity in quick succession, seeing a vicious goalbound volley bravely blocked by Manuel Akanji, and sending the follow-up an inch wide after being teed up by Andreas.

A rapid counter attack from City five minutes before the break posed a real threat when they overloaded our backline, but Marmoush drilled into Antonee Robinson, with the ball dropping to Bernardo Silva who sent his shot too close to Leno.

There was still time for Fulham to worry City again before half-time. A stunning Cairney pass found Wilson in space on the right, and he cut in and placed a low shot which Ederson just about got enough of a fingertip to. Andreas nipped in to try and convert the rebound, but he could only send his shot into the side-netting.

There were a couple of hairy moments at the start of the second half, with Tete denying Doku with a strong block, and Josko Gvardiol heading into the face of Leno from a corner.

The next chance was Fulham’s and it was a glorious one. Raúl Jiménez released Wilson with a smart pass, and although his square ball was intercepted by Ruben Dias, it dropped perfectly for Andreas, but the midfielder snatched at his shot and sent it into a blue shirt. It was heading wide anyway, though.

After a couple of promising moments featuring Raúl – he sent a lob off target with Ederson nowhere, and almost got on the end of Adama’s slide-rule pass – City doubled their lead through Haaland’s penalty after Lukić had clipped Gündoğan in the box.

Ryan Sessegnon and Josh King had been introduced and the pair almost combined to half the deficit with 10 minutes to play as Sess danced into the box before picking out his teammate, but King couldn’t quite get the direction he was looking for on his header.

Fulham felt we should have been awarded a penalty as we crept towards the 90 minute mark when Tete flicked a Smith Rowe cross onto the outstretched arm of Dias. It was certainly not in a natural position, so eyebrows were raised when nothing was given.

Substitute Berge thought he’d nabbed a consolation at the end of stoppage time, but Ederson made a fine sprawling stop to claw it out of the far corner, while there was still time for an acrobatic Raúl attempt that just cleared the crossbar.

Results elsewhere confirmed an 11^th place finish for Fulham, at the end of a campaign with plenty to be proud of.