Ranieri declares Fulham are ‘alive’ after comeback

Claudio Ranieri declared Fulham are “alive” again following the dramatic 4-2 win over Brighton.

Aleksandar Mitrovic scored twice as the Whites came from two goals down to breathe life into their relegation battle.

Fulham, who had lost all four of their previous matches since the turn of the year, were staring down the barrel of another defeat after two first-half goals from Glenn Murray.

But Calum Chambers pulled one back with his first Fulham goal before two trademark Mitrovic headers put the hosts in front, and Luciano Vietto opened his account with the fourth to wrap up the victory.

“This three points means that we are alive, we can see a little light in front of us,” said manager Ranieri.

“It is only a little step but we are alive. We showed very good fighting spirit.

“It was a very strange match, we were 2-0 down after 17 minutes. At half-time, I gave confidence to my players and positivity. I told them we are in the match.

“The goal from Chambers was very important, it gave the players the opportunity to say ‘we can do something good tonight’.

“We deserved to win and we played very good football.”

Murray had not scored in his previous nine Premier League matches but found Fulham’s defence as accommodating as usual – he had tucked away his sixth and seventh goals in his last five games against them.

Yet somehow Fulham clawed themselves back into the contest two minutes after the interval, Chambers beating Mat Ryan from 20 yards before Mitrovic twice threw himself in where it hurts to turn the match on its head.

A nervous final 10 minutes looked in prospect until Tom Cairney struck the crossbar and Vietto tucked the rebound away to complete the dramatic turnaround.

Fulham remain second from bottom but are now two points behind Cardiff and five from safety.

It is now three straight defeats for Brighton, and manager Chris Hughton said: “Of course I was angry afterwards. You don’t expect to concede four goals. That’s not like us.

“I thought as good as we were in the first half we were as poor in the second half.

“Mitrovic is a very good player but we conceded poor goals. If I’m looking at the first goal we allow a player to strike from the edge of the box and that gives them momentum.

“Looking at the four goals we conceded they are four poor goals which is not like us, particularly in the form we have been in. We found it hard to cope in the second half and we didn’t work hard enough.”