An ice-cool Willian netted the winning stoppage-time penalty – Reuters/Paul Childs
At Craven Cottage, Var was king. An entertaining game of three penalties, awarded after debate at Stockley Park long enough to play Dark Side of the Moon three times, was won by Fulham, securing their first victory in five matches.
It was a victory by a scoreline which delighted and astonished the home fans – used to watching their side labour in front of goal – in equal measure.
“Score prediction? 6-0 us,” said the man in the row in front of the press box as he took his seat before kick off. “Joking, obviously. We’ll be lucky to see one.”
“Joking, obviously. We’ll be lucky to see one.”
That is what they expect at Craven Cottage these days: lots of invention, lots of effort, very few goals. He was not alone in being astonished, then, when within a few minutes of kick off came a moment Fulham fans had assumed was beyond their desperately goal-shy team.
Alex Iwobi – one of four attacking midfielders in Marco Silva’s bold selection – started it, taking control of the ball on the right wing. Drifting inside, he passed across to Antonee Robinson. The full-back played a neat one-two with Willian and after he got the ball back on the byline, span it across goal. It looked as if it might fall behind Iwobi as he charged in. But he somehow managed to adjust his footing to scoop the ball past the wrong-footed Jose Sa.
Alex Iwobi opened the scoring for Fulham – Reuters/Dylan Martinez
The Wolves goalkeeper recovered his poise almost immediately to save a ferocious shot by Tom Cairney at the end of a carefully choreographed corner as Fulham, inspired by the rarity of an actual goal, pressed and foraged. They were full of neat one touch interchanges; Willian in particular buzzing across the field.
But there was a sense that lurking within their rearguard was a mistake waiting to happen. Fielding just Harrison Reed to defend in the middle of the park, left them exposed. Particularly with Mario Lemina, Wolves’ chief demolition man, looming like a darkening rain cloud. Soon after kick off he had immediately made plain his role with a shudderingly effective tackle on Andreas Pereira.
It was Lemina who seized on a misplaced pass by Reed, strode forward and quickly set Hwang Hee-chan away. The forward’s shot thwacked the bar, but the signal that Wolves were capable of quick and decisive breaks was clear. No-one was surprised – least of all the supporter in front of the press box – when a few moments later, Nelson Semedo set Jean-Ricner Bellegarde running along the line, he twisted and jinked his way past a visibly hesitant Robinson, then stood up a lovely cross. Matheus Cunha, standing completely unattended, accepted the invitation to head into the corner of the net.
Wolves, now having worked out what to do – harassed and snapped at Fulham’s midfield and charged at full pelt at their defence. More pressure saw Bernd Leno save well, then Timothy Castagne skidded in to hook the ball off his own line. And as the first half reached its conclusion, the neat interchanges that had characterised Fulham’s starting efforts were replaced by hit and hope long balls from defence, which invariably ran straight to Sa.
Hwang Hee-chan’s secon-half penalty was not enought to secure a point for Wolves – Getty Images/Gaspafotos
But anyone assuming the second half would quickly conform to the standard Cottage pattern here – Fulham dillying, dallying then eventually losing – was quickly disabused. Within moments of resumption something extraordinary happened: Cairney dispossessed the until then imperious Lemina with a withering tackle. He charged forward into the area, only to be tripped by Semedo. It looked clear, it looked obvious, but inevitably Var sucked the excitement out of the moment. Eventually, Willian was given permission to take the spot kick and scored.
The trouble was, any hope this might lead to something positive, quickly dissipated. This, after all, was Fulham. Wolves immediately poured forward, from a long ball Calvin Bassey misheaded into his own area, Hwang charged forward, and Tim Ream brought him down. Hwang equalised with a thumping penalty kick.
Now this was interesting. Silva replaced Raul Jimenez, ineffective against his old club, and Pereira with Vinicius and Harry Wilson, in the attempt to conjure a winner. Iwobi had another shot saved, Willian skimmed a delicious cross low and hard, but nobody was anywhere close to tapping it in. Nor were they when Wilson did the same thing.
But where there is hope there is Var. And after the referee Michael Salisbury turned down appeals when Wilson went down under Joao Gomes’s tackle, the video folk intervened. Another Fulham penalty, which Willian scored. Not that that was the end of the drama. Wolves insisted they should have another penalty too for handball in a last gasp scramble. But this time Var remained silent.
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