Fulham exit with their heads held high
Manchester City 4 Fulham 1
THERE is a culture of not wanting the round thing when playing Manchester City. You can have that, we don’t want it. Particularly at the Etihad Stadium.
No domestic team to have turned up here this season had completed more than 200 first-half passes. Until Fulham, whose company in reaching that landmark is only Paris Saint-Germain in November. And PSG are quite handy.
This was in the balance for a half of engaging cup football, a half that suggested there might be another way to plot against the country’s champions.
Fulham, five points clear at the top of the Championship, are primed to once again grace the same league as City. Sure, this was a one-off cup tie and a bit of a free hit, but Marco Silva has something with these players. Young and vibrant, they caused City problems.
‘One of the things that I asked of the players was to show courage to play the same way as we play in every stadium,’ said Silva. That they went ahead so early, inside four minutes, jolted their hosts into action, but the tie didn’t run away from Fulham until much later.
Aleksandar Mitrovic dropped off the front and turned a sharp ball inside Joao Cancelo for Harry Wilson to attack. In a muddle, Cancelo could only watch Wilson stab with the outside of his boot and the unmarked Fabio Carvalho netted.
City restored parity within two minutes courtesy of Ilkay Gundogan and were ahead after 13 minutes once John Stones headed in Kevin De Bruyne’s corner.
The hosts came out from the break with renewed vigour and two Riyad Mahrez goals sent them safely into the fifth round.
City boss Pep Guardiola praised Fulham, saying: ‘They monopolise the ball. Marco’s created an incredible team.’