Joka has last laugh in a right Nees up
BLUES ARE TOO HOT TO HANDLE
NEESKENS KEBANO rescued a point for promotion-chasing Fulham in an entertaining 2-2 draw at Cardiff.
A Kenneth Zohore double looked to have cancelled out Stefan Johansen’s early goal, but Kebano’s 68th-minute strike closed the gap to sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday to five points.
Cardiff could have snatched a late winner but substitute Declan John hit the post in injury-time.
The Bluebirds raced out of the blocks and were twice denied by Fulham stopper David Button, who kept out close-range efforts from Junior Hoilett and Sol Bamba.
After Button’s heroics, Cardiff keeper Allan McGregor followed suit by superbly tipping away Johansen’s volley.
The Norwegian did finish off a sweeping move soon after, though, to give the Cottagers a 17th-minute lead.
Cardiff hit back with an equaliser just seven minutes later when Zohore pounced on Johansen’s error and finished coolly.
Zohore netted his sixth goal in as many games to put Cardiff in front in the 56th minute, with an emphatic finish with the outside of his left boot.
But Fulham drew level after Tom Cairney’s clever ball found Kebano, whose scuffed shot trickled past McGregor.
The result keeps up Fulham’s push towards the play-off places but manager Slavisa Jokanovic was not impressed with his side’s performance.
He said: “We gave away too many easy chances and I’m not satisfied with the result.
“We can’t surrender now, we have to push harder and continue to fight for the top six.
“Anything is possible – we want to be better than the position we are in. The war is not finished yet.”
Cardiff remain safely in mid-table having collected 22 points from a possible 33 since the turn of the year.
“Both teams can feel disappointed that they didn’t win it,” said Bluebirds boss Neil Warnock.
“But we’ve come a long way and that’s a game where I think we would’ve been beaten earlier in my tenure.” say now. If we are able to win the title, I don’t know. For sure, now we stay on top of the table and we want to keep this position.
“Above all, I think we deserve to stay at the top. We are playing good football, with good intensity and scoring a lot of goals.
“Trust me, I am very happy – above all for my players. They deserve this. Every day I see their commitment and behaviour during the training sessions.
“Today I saw a lot of right answers from my players. I have a team up to now that has a right to be top of the table. We played really well in the first half and it was a pity to concede the goal at the end of it.
“Maybe the time was up but in these situations you must pay attention.
“I told them, ‘We are playing very well, we are dominating the game, we created some chances but we are still one-one, we need to go in the second half and push’.
“And they did this. It was very important because in this situation when the tension starts to increase, it’s important to see the right answer from my players. “And today I saw a lot of right answers.” Swansea boss Paul Clement claimed Chelsea are far better than the side he helped win the title as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant.
Clement said: “They are younger. The team I worked with under Carlo was a lot more mature.
“Three or more seasons at this level, if they keep them together, they will be formidable.”