Manchester City 2-1 Fulham - The look back
Manchester City 2-1 Fulham
Football can be cruel. And so it proved on Saturday, as we fell to a contentious 95th-minute penalty at the Etihad.
And that only tells some of the story.
Both sides were missing their star strikers; Mitro was out of the squad completely, while Erling Haaland made the bench following illness and a knock. More on him later.
It was City’s second striker, Julian Alvarez, who put them one up on 16 minutes, rifling a ball past Leno and off the crossbar.
But the champions’ lead wasn’t to last. Andreas Pereira dispatched a well-taken penalty after Wilson was barged down by Joao Cancelo in the box just 10 minutes after Alvarez had put City ahead. Cancelo saw red and it looked like it could be a fortuitous afternoon for the Whites.
But 10 of City’s best are more than a match for 11 of us mere mortals, and Fulham just couldn’t make the advantage count.
But it still took controversy to see us off. Deep into five minutes of injury time, Robinson (barely) brought down Kevin De Bruyne, who certainly bought the spot-kick.
Haaland, who’d come on and even put the ball in the net earlier, only for it to be rightly ruled out for offside, made no mistake second time round.
The fact he wheeled away with his top in his hand, a la Aguero(ooooo) showed just how much it meant to beat the mighty Fulham.
We lost, but we’re not lost. We’re exactly where we deserve to be.
WHAT THEY SAID
▪️Marco Silva: It was cruel for us. Hard to take. Everyone is down now in the dressing room but it shows our commitment and our ambition to come here and embrace this great challenge against City. It is tough but just has to make us more mature and grow.
▪️Andreas Pereira: We deserved more! This team has warrior spirit! Let's go Fulham.
▪️Jack Collins: Obv brutal to lose to 10, but I’d look at it thus - when City are on song, their movement makes it feel like they have an extra man, an overload always on. With 10, it just felt level. Maybe that’s not going for the jugular, but I can understand it. Haaland the difference. Shock.
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UPCOMING GAMES
Sun 13 Nov @ 4.30PM: Manchester United (H)
Mon 26 Dec @ 3.00PM: Crystal Palace (A)
Sat 31 Dec @ 3.00PM: Southampton (H)
Tue 3 Jan @ 7:45PM: Leicester City (A)
FULHAMISH CONTENT
George Rossiter looks back at a heart-breaking defeat at the Etihad.
Sammy analyses Fulham's 2-1 defeat to Man City at the Etihad.
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It's not subjective or disrespectful to say that's the hardest of the Manchester duo out of the way. Here's to a strong home performance against United.
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