Danny Murphy (75 mins)
Roque Santa Cruz (7 mins)
Carlos Tevez (36 mins)
Barclays Premier League
, Mar 21, 2010
Ground: Craven Cottage
, Kickoff: 15:00 , Att 25,359
Team news
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson welcomes back captain Danny Murphy and midfielder Jonathan Greening for the Barclays Premier League visit of Manchester City.
Both players were suspended for the win over Juventus and Murphy could replace Dickson Etuhu, who picked up a knock in the shock Europa League victory.
Andy Johnson and John Pantsil (both knee) are out, David Elm is a doubt with illness while Clint Dempsey is pushing for a starting place after scoring the winner against Juve.
Hodgson admits the Premier League now sits behind both the Europa League and the FA Cup in his list of priorities after Thursday's shock win over Juventus.
The Cottagers welcome City to Craven Cottage as they look to repeat the level of performance that allowed them to thrash Juventus and confirm their place in the last eight of the Europa League.
Hodgson's side have also reached the same stage in the FA Cup this year and they could book a semi-final date against Portsmouth at Wembley if they overcome Harry Redknapp's Tottenham in a replay on Wednesday.
The west London side currently sit 10th in the Premier League table and 14 points clear of the relegation zone after a successful league campaign built largely on a solid home record.
Hodgson believes an injury crisis in February ended his side's chances of qualifying for Europe through the league and he will now seek to ensure his side's place in next year's Europa League by giving priority to both cup competitions.
"I don't think we'll go down this year," the 62-year-old said.
"Maybe we're a few points short but I'm pretty confident that we will do it, so there's no doubt that the two cup competitions will now take priority, particularly the one on Wednesday, but that might be a competition that come Thursday we won't have to worry about because that game at Tottenham is by no means a given." With significant prize money on offer, Hodgson is keen not to watch his side's league campaign dwindle into obscurity.
He will also be careful not to risk the wrath of the Premier League, who handed Wolves a suspended #25,000 fine after manager Mick McCarthy fielded a weakened team against Manchester United earlier this season.
Hodgson believes he will have no trouble motivating his players for league games.
"I think in the Premier League, with the quality of the opposition, the interest in the game, the full stadiums of people, the cheering the intensity and the speed of the game, I think it will be very difficult for a serious professional footballer not to be up for games," he said.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini will be without Wayne Bridge.
The full-back will be sidelined for a month after undergoing a hernia operation and Javier Garrido is favourite to replace him.
Emmanuel Adebayor is absent through suspension while Martin Petrov has a knee injury.
City go into the match on the back of a draw at Sunderland and Argentinian full-back Pablo Zabaleta wants nothing less than a victory to keep the pressure on Tottenham, Liverpool and Aston Villa and a repeat of the mindset that helped them beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
He said: "We are solid at home but we need to pick up points on the road and this game is a great one for us.
"This is a big time in the race and if we want to get into the top four we need to win on Sunday.
"We know it will be difficult as Fulham showed against Juventus they have the quality to beat any team. But if we show the same attitude as we did at Chelsea we have a big chance." Zabaleta has played across the back and in midfield under manager Roberto Mancini but is not complaining.
He added: "Sometimes we have had too many problems with injuries, so sometimes I have played in different roles.
Fulham vs Man City
Last modified 22:55 21/03/10
Daily Mirror match report by Neil McLemanFulham failed to stage another famous fightback at Craven Cottage yesterday as Carlos Tevez performed his own masterclass.
The Argentine scored his third goal in three games since returning from compassionate leave to lift Manchester City into fifth place.
And his virtuoso display of skill, touch and vision also proved to be the difference between a brave Fulham side, who fought back strongly after the break following Thursday’s heroics against Juventus, and Roberto Mancini’s men.
The fifth-placed side in the Premier League proved to be much better than the fifth-placed side in Serie A, even if they tried to sit Italian-style on a 2-0 lead after the break.
Roque Santa Cruz and Tevez scored before Danny Murphy netted from the spot to set up an unexpectedly tense finish.
After only their fifth away win of the campaign, Mancini was stretching the boundaries of linguistic licence by describing the victory as “comfortable”.
But the Italian was right to heap praise on his 26-year-old striker who has now scored 22 goals this season.
“Carlos scored a fantastic goal, a great goal, a key goal,” he said.
“At 2-0 we played with calm and had a lot of chances. It’s important that we won the game but also that we took our chances.”
On six minutes Bobby Zamora nodded Damien Duff’s cross into Zoltan Gera’s path and his scooped shot was acrobatically cleared off the line by the retreating Kolo Toure.
As Fulham appealed the ball had crossed the line, City immediately counter-attacked and Craig Bellamy’s cross-shot deflected off Aaron Hughes and hit the near post.
Wrong-footed, Mark Schwarzer fell to the floor and allowed the rebound to slip through his grasp for Cruz to tap home.
The Fulham faithful, who had seen David Trezeguet give Juve a second-minute lead in midweek, responded by chanting: “We are going to win 4-1”.
But Mancini’s side doubled their lead after 36 minutes.
Tevez and Bellamy exchanged passes to slice open the Fulham right flank and when Hughes was forced out wide to cover Chris Baird, the Argentine drifted into the space. He collected the Welshman’s pass and skipped around Manchester United-bound Chris Smalling – deputising for the injured Brede Hangeland – before slotting home past Schwarzer.
As on Thursday night, Roy Hodgson reinvigorated his side after the break with fresh legs, including European match-winner Clint Dempsey.
Adam Johnson hit the post for City with a cross-shot but the last half an hour saw unrelenting Fulham pressure. They were rewarded after 74 minutes when Baird’s cross was handled by Gareth Barry. Captain Murphy, who had missed both legs against Juve through suspension, sent Shay Given the wrong way from 12 yards.
Sub Stefano Okaka sliced wide when sent through after 82 minutes while City should have settled the match seven minutes later – Tevez released City sub Nigel De Jong clear on goal but he shot weakly at Schwarzer.
And in injury time Bjorn Helge Riise’s cross hit Vincent Kompany’s hand in the box at point-blank range. It was a carbon-copy of the incident which led to Fulham’s penalty on Thursday when Duff’s ball hit Diego. But this was another day and another result. It means Fulham have won only one match in the last seven as they approach Wednesday’s FA quarter-final replay at Tottenham.
But Hodgson insisted his team were not flagging. He said. “We conceded two very bad goals to them in the first half but I thought the team did remarkably well to come back from that and City were much happier to hear the final whistle than we were.”
| Player rating out of ten | Player name | Substitution | Did they score? | Player's disciplinary record | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Schwarzer | ||||
| 6 | Chris Baird(sub 79) |
|
|||
| 18 | Aaron Hughes | ||||
| 26 | Chris Smalling | ||||
| 3 | Paul Konchesky | ||||
| 16 | Damien Duff | ||||
| 13 | Danny Murphy |
|
|||
| 20 | Dickson Etuhu | ||||
| 29 | Simon Davies | ||||
| 11 | Zoltan Gera(sub 54) |
|
|||
| 25 | Bobby Zamora(sub 51) |
|
|||
| Substitutes | |||||
| 19 | Pascal Zuberbuhler | ||||
| 2 | Stephen Kelly | ||||
| 7 | Nicky Shorey | ||||
| 9 | Stefano Okaka(sub 54) |
|
|||
| 17 | Bjorn Helge Riise(sub 79) |
|
|||
| 23 | Clinton Dempsey(sub 51) |
|
|||
| 27 | Jonathan Greening | ||||
| Player rating out of ten | Player name | Did they score? | Player's disciplinary record | Substitution | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shay Given | ||||
| 5 | Pablo Zabaleta | ||||
| 28 | Kolo Toure | ||||
| 33 | Vincent Kompany | ||||
| 15 | Javier Garrido | ||||
| 11 | Adam Johnson(sub 83) |
|
|||
| 24 | Patrick Vieira | ||||
| 18 | Gareth Barry | ||||
| 39 | Craig Bellamy(sub 90) |
|
|||
| 32 | Carlos Tevez |
|
|||
| 14 | Roque Santa Cruz(sub 78) |
|
|
||
| Substitutes | |||||
| 12 | Stuart Taylor | ||||
| 2 | Micah Richards | ||||
| 4 | Nedum Onuoha(sub 90) |
|
|||
| 7 | Stephen Ireland | ||||
| 8 | Shaun Wright-Phillips(sub 83) |
|
|||
| 16 | Silvio Sylvinho | ||||
| 34 | Nigel De Jong(sub 78) |
|
|||
| Team | Fulham | Man City |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | ||
| Shots on target | 9 | 4 |
| Shots off target | 6 | 6 |
| Corner | 2 | 4 |
| Fouls | 9 | 8 |
| Crosses | 3 | 8 |
