Man City come from behind to beat Fulham
Former Chelsea man Mateo Kovacic scored twice as the champions came from behind to beat Fulham, who can take plenty of encouragement from their performance.
Andreas Pereira put the Whites ahead at the Etihad Stadium after being sublimely set up by Raul Jimenez on 26 minutes.
After Kovacic’s brace, Jeremy Doku made it 3-1 to Manchester City, who were made to work until the end after Rodrigo Muniz’s late goal.
The opener came when Jimenez collected Alex Iwobi’s flick and brilliantly back-heeled the ball towards Pereira, who applied the finish.
Had Adama Traore not missed two excellent chances for Fulham during a first half in which they caused City problems, the result might have been very different.
Kovacic levelled six minutes after the first goal, when the visitors could only half clear a corner and the Croatian’s shot deflected in off Fulham defender Joachim Andersen.
Kovacic scored again 90 seconds into the second half, rifling home from the edge of the box after being teed up by Bernardo Silva.
Doku added a superb third for City, darting in from the left and unleashing an unstoppable strike into the far corner.
But Fulham kept battling and Muniz fired into the roof of the net with the help of a deflection off John Stones.
Fulham: Leno, Tete (Castagne 77′), Andersen, Bassey, Robinson, Lukic, Berge (Cairney 65′) , Pereira (Smith Rowe 65′), Traore, Iwobi (Nelson 77′), Jimenez (Muniz 77′)
