Fulham 0 Brentford 3
Marco Silva’s side got off to a winning start with a narrow win at Everton last weekend and welcomed Brentford to Craven Cottage in another London derby.
Despite declaring his commitment to Fulham, Aleksandr Mitrovic has since confirmed a move to join Al-Hilal for a club record fee of £50m. You cannot blame The Cottagers for cashing in on the player who at times could be a very toxic influence on the squad, trying to manufacture his own departure.
With the summer signing of Raul Jimenez and the recent signing of Adama Traore, Marco Silva will feel they have already prepared well for losing the Serbian but will want more reinforcements.
Thomas Frank’s side have a fantastic record at Craven Cottage in the modern era, having only lost two of their last sixteen fixtures here, so would have gone into this game full of confidence. They had the first chance of the game as the heavily underrated Jensen clipped a ball into the box for Mbuemo who couldn’t get a telling enough touch to take it passed Leno in the Fulham goal.
Credit: @BrentfordFC
Silva’s side came forward on their first attack and as Jimenez tried to play a clever pass into the box, it was deflected behind for a corner. As the corner was swung in towards the goal it was Ethan Pinnock who got a glancing touch to see it rebound off the crossbar but Kenny Tete was penalised for a nudge on the player.
The Bees then had a corner half-cleared and as the ball came to Mbuemo on the edge of the penalty area, he whipped an inviting ball across the six yard box which Wissa got a touch to, but Robinson was able to hook it off the goal line.
Just before the interval, Diop under hit a backpass to Leno, gifting the ball to Wissa who rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the goal to give the visitors the lead. We are a long way from Christmas still but the Fulham defender could be forgiven for wanting to put a bow on that present for the Brentford striker.
Fulham captain Tim Ream was then penalised for a clumsy challenge on the goalscorer, resulting in a yellow card in added time at the end of the first half. Whatever Marco Silva said at half-time seemed to work as Harrison fed the ball to De Cordova-Reid who struck an effort from just inside the box, only to see it clip the top of the crossbar.
Mbuemo got in behind The Cottagers' defence and looked to find Wissa from the byline but his pass was just behind the striker but as the hosts failed to clear, Jensen struck the ball into the ground, forcing Leno into a full-stretch save to tip it over the bar.
The day went from bad to worse for American defender Ream as he was adjudged to have bundled Wissa to the ground, resulting in a penalty. To compound Fulham’s anger at the decision, the referee then showed their skipper a second yellow card, quickly followed by a red to reduce Marco Silva’s side to ten men.
The replay showed that it was a very soft penalty as Wissa was off balance as he tried to shoot but the subsequent VAR review took the usual ‘three monkeys’ approach. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Marco Silva was raging with both the penalty decision and the sending off of his centre-back.
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