CARLOS IS DREAMING BIG NOW
CARLOS Carvalhal hopes a big fish in the fourth-round draw will provide a brief return to Sheffield Wednesday’s glory days after they defeated Fulham yesterday.
Substitute Atdhe Nuhiu complemented Barry Bannan’s wonder goal as Fulham wasted a host of chances through poor finishing when Wednesday’s fine defending failed them.
Carvalhal made just three changes - all injury-enforced - to the side that overcame the same opposition last week, and believes when those players return the Owls will be able to compete both in their play-off push and in the FA Cup.
“If we recover Westwood, Hunt, Lees, Turner, McGugan, Forestieri, Matias, Hooper…it’s like a team,” he said.“If you recover those players before the next round, we have chances to do something in the Cup.
“I would like to play a big team at home like we played here with Arsenal to remember the old moments of Sheffield Wednesday, because we deserve to play big teams here in our stadium with our fans.
“But at this moment we don’t have a squad to play in two competitions, so we’ll have to see what happens.”
An open game was decorated with a dizzying 30-minute spell that featured two goals and an array of wasted chances.
Bannan will never strike a ball better than he did for the opener, curling Lucas Joao’s knockdown in off the bar from outside the box.
But Fulham were level a minute later after Ross McCormack’s low drive bounced off retreating Liam Palmer’s heels and fell for substitute Moussa Dembele to convert.
That was as good as it got for the 19-year-old though, as he twice missed from point-blank range just after the break, first heading straight at keeper Joe Wildsmith. Five minutes later Wildsmith spilled Lasse Vigen Christensen’s low cross at Dembele’s feet, only for Daniel Pudil to produce a stunning block.
Worse followed for the Cottagers as Alex Kacaniklic somehow stopped another low cross dead inside the six-yard box when any other touch would have found the net.
Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic will be glad his side don’t have to play Wednesday every week after his first two games in charge both ended with defeat to the Owls. “We played very good football for 70 minutes but missed many chances, and Wednesday once more scored a fantastic goal against us,” he said.
“They were very clinical and scored a fantastic first goal, then in the right moment they scored the second, and that’s it.
“We’re disappointed not to continue in this competition, but what is very important for us is to try and follow our way and push this team. “In the ten days I’ve been at the club I’ve discovered many things, but we don’t have time and we need to change our situation imminently and fight for points.”