Aleksandar Mitrovic scores on his return from injury to help Fulham produce one of the most comfortable football results of the weekend in the Premier League. The striker’s health had been questioned following his performance with Serbia at the World Cup, but he displayed no signs of fatigue while turning in a standout performance at Selhurst Park. Bobby Decordova-Reid (32) nodded in Mitrovic’s excellent cross before Crystal Palace’s first player of the game was dismissed two minutes later. Tim Ream (71), who had headed down Andreas Pereira’s corner, had scored, but the goal went under VAR review for handball. Mitrovic added a late goal of his own to complete a superb afternoon. He secured an incredible three points for Fulham with a header from Willian’s scooped ball from the left.
For the first time in 58 days, Premier League football was played at Selhurst Park during the first thirty minutes of the game. Early on, Vicente Guaita used all of his strength to deflect Pereira’s shot over the crossbar. At the other end, following some excellent work by Michael Olise, Jordan Ayew’s shot clattered against the top of the bar. Just after the half-hour mark, Mitrovic drove down the right wing and sent in a beautiful cross for Decordova-Reid to flick his header home thanks to a sloppy pass from former Fulham defender Joachim Andersen.
Palace’s afternoon got worse after two minutes. After a hard touch, Mitchell attempted to recover, but instead of getting to the ball, he caught Tete with his studs up. The 23-year-old full-back received a straight red card and seemed upset as he exited the field. Only 12 minutes into the second half, Tomkins joined him as Palace was given another red card. As Palace’s hopes of clawing their way back into the game dwindled, the seasoned defender elbowed Mitrovic in the face, earning him his second card of the day.
While a team can be difficult to defeat with 10 men, it is undoubtedly simpler to defeat a team with nine men, and Fulham made a late drive for a second goal. Pereira again hit the post, this time with a powerful left-footed strike. Then, Guaita made an incredible stop with his legs to keep Mitrovic from scoring. A VAR review of Fulham’s second goal would add to the drama because Mitrovic and Joel Ward were in a holding pattern when Pereira whipped in a beautiful corner and the ball appeared to strike the striker’s arm before finding Ream. The Fulham skipper then made his way past Andersen and scored from a tight distance.
The Palace players approached the referee right away to make their case, and they were given optimism when he checked the pitchside monitor. After evaluating the circumstances, the goal was nonetheless given. Mitrovic quickly defeated Guaita as he completed a superb away victory for Fulham. Willian finished off a strong comeback football results to domestic play by brilliantly deflecting a cross on the left before scooping it back into the middle where the striker was waiting to glance his header home.
“I believe Fulham was the superior team right from the start. I believe that there were too many facets of the game that we were not present for, and as a result, we ultimately received what we deserved because we did nothing to benefit from it,” Crystal Palace boss Patrick Viera said. “Currently, it is really tough to grasp, which is one of my disappointments since I was extremely happy with what I saw in training over the past few weeks and I was anticipating a stronger performance from my squad.”
For more football results, click here
