Fulham at Bristol City - 3rd Round FA Cup

Fulham kicks off their 2022 FA Cup campaign with a trip to Ashton Gate to face Bristol City. The match will be on ESPN+ at 7:30am EST.

It is great to finally have a chance to see Fulham in action again, but I'm not sure if it will be worth the early roll-call for you west-coasters. I won't be surprised if none of Fulham's regular starters are on the field at kickoff. Two unnamed players are isolating due to COVID and Seri will not be available while he is on international duty.

Bristol City is comfortably mid-table so they've got nothing to lose by putting out a strong team. It doesn't look like they'll manage a playoff run and they aren't in danger of relegation so why not take a shot at a good FA Cup run.

Fulham will see Bristol City again next weekend when they host them in the Championship.

 

The Covid lull had taken over me so I just realized that there is an actual match tomorrow. Looking ahead, if more Covid postponements are avoided, this will be the first of 5 matches over the next 15 days. On one hand no one has played since Dec 20 so you kind of want them to get some match action. But on the other hand, you need to rotate the squad so as to not wear them down. So like Micah, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a A-/B team for this one.

I’ll be tuning in to fill my football void and be happy just to be watching.

 

That’s 210 minutes of football against Bristol City w/an agg of 2-1. They got a game plan and stick to it. Happy we showed the grit to finish them off.

 

The first 90 minutes were dreadfully boring. Glad to pull that one out.

 

We didn’t deserve to win, to be quite honest. We were outplayed, outhustled and outcoached until Wilson’s kick. How can you spend an entire match not being able to get the ball out of your own end without changing anything? The second string did themselves no favors today. And yet we won. What a game.

 

I was able to watch most of the match today...and having not seen the squad play in months, I thought 'hey, this looks like old Fulham...how the hell are they at the top of the table?'...and then the substitutes started to make a difference...and then Wilson's attempted cross WENT INTO THE NET!!! That type of play doesn't happen for the "Old Fulham" - so COYW!!! A win is a win and onto the next round!

 

Sadly, it doesn't look like ESPN is going to post highlights of this one. We have to deal with these crummy ones from the FA that don't show a bunch of shots Fulham had in extra time:


Fulham essentially played without a midfield for the first 70 minutes of this match. Francois, Chalobah, and Quina were all terrible, which was a big disappointment since I was excited to see them get some time - especially Francois. I think Chalobah may have been the worst of the bunch, but he managed to stick around until the end of regular time despite repeatedly killing any Fulham attack with poor passing. Any threat in the first 90 generally came up the wing from former Bristol City players Bryan and DeCordova-Reid. Bryan in particular had some good crosses and DeCordova-Reid was able to do some fancy footwork that Muniz was never able to convert into a goal.

Then in extra time, the A-Team was back together and Silva was heard muttering "I love it when a plan comes together" while munching on a cigar. Once Francois, Quina, Carvalho, Chalobah, and Muniz were replaced by Reed, Kebano, Cairney, Wilson, and Mitrovic everything starting looking much better for Fulham. Fulham was making passes in the midfield, pressuring when out of possession, and putting Bristol City back on its heals. Fulham easily could have had three goals in the last 30 minutes had Bristol City's keeper not made some very fine saves. It is a little weird that the one that got in was almost a fluke from Wilson, but let's give him credit for putting a dangerous ball in the box.

One other bright point was Hector. He played solid Championship-level defense. He's no Premier League level replacement for Ream, but he still did well today along with the rest of the back line as they fended off 12 corners and numerous corner-like long throw-ins from former Fulham player Kalas. Nice to finally see that dancing banana again!

 

I thought the same. It was pretty much a festival of struggling to get the ball out of the back.