Fulham vs. Manchester City

Fulham make the trip to the Etihad this Saturday to face a City squad that may not (or may...) contain Haaaaaaaland. Regardless, it's a tall task for Fulham to get anything from the match this weekend...and quite possibly the reason as to why I'm beginning this shining beacon of optimism on Thursday. COYW!

 

Aaaah, thanks for posting that @nevzter ! I wasn't yet a Fulham fan back then, but I still love watching that comeback and its part in the Great Escape.

City didn't have anything to play for in yesterday's Champion's League match so they started a team that will look very different from the one Fulham will face and they gave limited playing time to guys like De Bruyne and Silva. Since Alvarez played the full 90 that makes me think Haaland expects to play on Saturday.

Fulham will be without DeCordova-Reid as he serves his yellow-card suspension. Mitrovic, Reed, and Tete are all on four yellows so odds are good at least one of them will miss the Manchester United match next week.

Since we've got that positive vibe going from the highlights above I won't bother saying what I think will happen in this match.

Please remember - England is currently four hours ahead of Eastern Time! We are in that unusual period when we are still on Daylight Savings Time, but they are not. So the match starts an hour later than usual here - 11am EDT. It will be available on USA.

 

No Mitro?

 

So, I’m learning how to turn a baseball bat today and just checked the score…1-all and a man up? We gotta get three points outta this! What a gift!

 

What a kick in the gut….Missed Mitro out there, but making sure he’s good for WC is important. Had the point, and such an unnecessary play by Jedi. Was it soft? Yes. Was it a foul the ref is going to give them? Every time. Leno guessed right, I’m not sure how he didn’t save it.

 

The highlights:


Well, how Fulhamish! I go into the match not caring about getting any points, just hoping not to give up too much in goal differential. But then Fulham goes and makes a match of it and just when I start to entertain the idea of a point - it's gone!

I had to follow this one by text and I kept waiting for the inevitable Haaland goal in the second half. It did come, but not in the way I expected. After watching the highlights, I totally agree with @SoCalJoe 's assessment - the penalty was very soft, but it was not a smart challenge to make in the box. Is that the second time Robinson has done that this year? I have this memory that he left a foot in on an earlier PK, but I can't remember for sure.

Anyone know why Mitrovic was out of the squad?

Hopefully the squad can take some positives from their effort today and close out the pre-WC matches with confidence.

I had mistakenly looked at the wrong match for the total of yellows and thought Fulham got out without any suspensions, but unfortunately Fulham will be without Reed and Tete vs. Manchester United.