Carvalho shines as Fulham beat Millwall
A Fabio Carvalho-inspired Fulham chalked up a second away win in as many games as Millwall were dominated at The Den.
Marco Silva once again named record £27m signing Jean Michael Seri in the heart of midfield but it was the 18-year-old Portuguese-born Carvalho that stole the show with a fabulous performance that saw him torment the Lions from the opening whistle.
Fulham raced into a 2-0 lead after just eight minutes with Carvalho setting up the opener for Aleksandar Mitrovic with a storming run down the left wing to silence the home crowd with the first attack of the game.
The young playmaker then doubled his side’s advantage with an emphatic finish after running untracked into the Millwall box to latch onto Neeskens Kebano’s through ball and hammer it past Bartosz Bialkowski.
Fulham, with Carvalho at the heart of everything, created chance after chance but were unable to add a third goal.
Ivan Cavaleiro missed a glorious opportunity on the stroke of halftime when he blasted wide after being picked out by a beautifully-weighted Carvalho pass that split the Lions’ shell-shocked defence.
Carvalho almost scored his second just after the restart with a shot from close range that was clawed away by Bialkowski after the Polish stopper initially kept out Mitrovic.
He was denied once again by a last-ditch block in the six-yard box by Daniel Ballard as the Whites tried to kill off the game.
Millwall offered little threat in attack up until the 87th minute when Matt Smith’s header bounced off Banik Afobe and looped over Paulo Gazzaniga to set up a nervous finish which saw the former striker head just over the bar deep in injury time.
Fulham: Gazzaniga, Tete, Robinson, Ream, Adarabioyo, Onomah (Anguissa 45), Seri, Kebano (Mawson 85), Carvalho, Cavaleiro (Bryan 80), Mitrovic.
Subs not used: Rodak, Odoi, Mawson, Francois, Stansfield.
