A late Lisandro Martínez goal was all that separated Fulham and Manchester United in a game which had previously promised little more than a bore 0-0 draw at Craven Cottage.
Chances were few and far between in the first half and that rung true for the second as well, until Martínez’s deflected distance strike won the visitors the game in the 78th minute, this their first away victory since defeating Manchester City in December.
As it happened
In the time taken to watch Fulham take on Manchester United at Craven Cottage, you could have listened to Nas’ classic album Illmatic twice; you could have watched over half of Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus The Godfather; you could have gone for a long, serene walk in your local park. If you’d done any of those things, you’d know almost as much about this game of football as everyone in the stadium watching.
The first half was an affair between two sides who appeared to have far too much respect for one another. Alex Iwobi was the hosts’ most threatening player throughout, testing André Onana twice with efforts off both feet from the edge of the area, each time the shot too central to trouble the United goalkeeper. Both of those came in the opening 20 minutes.
Just past the half-hour mark, Raúl Jiménez curled an effort well wide from distance, and a minute later he’d take a heavy touch from an Antonee Robinson cross which forced a second shot to miss the target by quite a margin.
Embed from Getty ImagesManchester United, for their part, finally took their first shot of any note in the 42nd minute after Mathijs de Ligt forced a limp header straight down the throat of Bernd Leno.
For the most part, though, this looked more like two featherweight boxers sparring, neither willing to risk any kind of detrimental blow on the other.
Adama Traoré’s second-half introduction sparked some life in the game, but in typical Adama Traoré fashion, his almost uncanny ability to dribble past and shrug off defenders as if they were mosquitos infringing his personal space was not matched by any end product.
Bruno Fernandes would slide a free kick under the wall and into the side netting, Harry Maguire would deny a Rodrigo Muniz chance with a perfectly timed headed intervention. That flew out for a corner, the first of the game coming in the 71st minute.
Four minutes later, Traoré would come as close as he could to putting a dent into the scoreline, cutting past Lenny Yoro before ballooning an effort over the bar.
And then, in a turn of events that seemed quite unfathomable, the ball hit the back of the net.
On 78 minutes, Saša Lukić under-hit a clearance which found the feet of Martínez. Having seldom created anything in the box, he chanced his luck with an effort outside it. He lined up, pulled the trigger, and his shot spun off the shin of Lukić before dipping over Leno and into the back of the net. No surprise, really, that in a game of few opportunities, it was a half-chance which yielded the goal.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis game had, for 77 minutes, promised the 0-0 scoreline to end all 0-0 scorelines. Thanks to Lisandro Martínez, Manchester United left West London with all three points – but if Fulham had worn their shooting boots, they might’ve equalised in the 89th minute, as Joachim Andersen nodded goalwards only for young Toby Collyer to clear a sure goal off the line.
Right at the very end, United almost doubled the lead; Amad was played in behind before playing a devastating give-and-go with Kobbie Mainoo to set up the opportunity to slot home – but the Ivorian’s initial run was timed a fraction early, the goal chalked off within a minute.
But they’d done enough; one goal was enough for victory.
The result sees the visitors return to within touching distance of the top 10, now only four points adrift. Their next clash on February 2nd sees them host their bogey team Crystal Palace.
For Fulham, they themselves are that side slap bang in the middle of the table, this loss a missed opportunity to overtake Brighton and come within a point of Aston Villa. They’ll return to action on February 1st when they travel to St. James’ Park to face Newcastle United.
The lineups
FUL: Leno; Robinson, Bassey, Andersen, Castagne; Berge, Lukić; Iwobi, Smith Rowe, Wilson; Jiménez
MUN: Onana; Martínez, Maguire, De Ligt; Dalot, Fernandes, Ugarte, Mazraoui; Garnacho, Amad; Højlund
FEATURED IMAGE: Tom McAtee