Palace strike late to deny Fulham victory
Jeffrey Schlupp’s magnificent late strike earned Crystal Palace a deserved draw at Craven Cottage.
In-form Rodrigo Muniz’s second-half header looked to have secured victory for Fulham against a wasteful Palace side before substitute Schlupp picked out the top-left corner of Bernd Leno’s net from long range in the 87th minute.
Muniz headed in Thomas Castagne’s cross seven minutes into the second half for his ninth goal in 12 games, after Palace had squandered a host of first-half chances.
The visitors dominated the opening period but Michael Olise, Chris Richards and Jean-Phillipe Mateta all missed good opportunities to score.
Fulham were fortunate not to concede a penalty in the opening 10 minutes when Antonee Robinson appeared to shove Daniel Munoz over in the box, but VAR official Michael Sailsbury backed referee Stuart Atwell’s on-field decision.
Marco Silva’s side were much-improved in the second half and opened the scoring through Muniz’s powerful header.
But Palace continued to press for an equaliser with Leno saving well from Odsonne Eduoard before Schlupp latched on to Adam Wharton’s pass to finish emphatically.
Fulham: Leno; Castagne, Bassey, Diop, Robinson; Reed (Cairney 83), Palhinha (Lucic 68); Pereira (Wilson 83), Decordova-Reid (Willian 68), Iwobi, Muniz (Broja 83).
Subs not used: Rodak, Tete, Traore, Ream.
