Fulham very determined to finish the job tonight at Craven Cottage
Fulham FC manager Scott Parker has said his side are determined to finish the job later today after seizing a 2-0 first-leg over Cardiff City in their Championship play-off semi-final.
Superb and outstanding performance from Josh Onomah and Neeskens Kebano put the Cottagers in a commanding position ahead of the return game at the Craven Cottage on Thursday night.
Ahead of their meeting tonight, Fulham head coach Parker, said via gooner news:
“Overall it was a good performance.
“We weathered the storm early on and got a foothold in the game. I think we’re well worthy of the two-goal lead at this stage.”
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He added as quoted via the Independent: “We worked our socks off and our foundation was built on concrete, but it will be another huge battle on Thursday. This is only halfway through and we’ll stand up to the challenge.”
Kebano’s free-kick in stoppage time sparked huge celebrations on the Fulham bench. On that, Cardiff manager Neil Harris suggested the celebrations were excessive, saying:
“It looked like they had won the tie,” he told Sky – but Parker rejected that claim with 90 minutes to come in west London, he said:
“Neil has said a lot over the last week and few weeks, I just see a group of players,” said Parker, who lost 26-goal top scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic before kick-off with a slight hamstring injury.
“I didn’t see anything that was over the top, I just see a professional team that understood that there is only half of this tie done.
“The players were pleased, and rightly so, to score two away from home, but at the end of the game I see real professionalism from us.”
According to the Independent, Cardiff City counterpart Harris described the second Fulham goal as a “right kick in the nuts”, but insisted the Bluebirds are not out of the tie.
“The first 25 minutes we were excellent, but we have to take one of our chances then and get on top,” Harris said.
“After the drinks break Fulham was better, but at half-time, we were relatively happy. In the second half, we never really got going.
“They pressed much better and made it more difficult to build attacks.”
They faced each other once against tonight at the Craven Cottage and seeing how Brentford saw off Swansea City in the last ever game at Griffin Park as they overturned a play-off semi-final first-leg deficit, this should be extra morale-boosting for Cardiff tonight in what is bound to be a scintillating encounter. Check out french casinos for available best odds on Cardiff overturning their 2-0 first-leg deficit tonight.
