Premier League - Tuesday 14th January 2025, 7:30 PM
West Ham
3
(2)
-
(0)
2
Fulham
Attendance: 62458
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)
Match events
Soler
31
Soucek
33
44
Castagne (f)
51
Iwobi
Paqueta (f)
53
Ings
63
Kudus
63
65
Lukic (f)
Soucek (f)
66
Paquetá
67
68
Cairney
68
Pereira
68
Traore
68
Smith Rowe
Wan Bissak (f)
70
Irving
72
Soler
72
78
Iwobi
Cresswell
81
Emerson
81
Scarles
81
Rodriguez
81
85
King
85
Wilson
85
Muniz
85
Iwobi
97
Jimenez
Match review
Match Report
West Ham United (2) 3-2 (0) Fulham
Premier League Match Day 21 24/25 at London Stadium
Tuesday 14th January 2025 KO: 19:30
Referee:
Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)
Live on TNT/Discovery
|
Fulham fell to a 3-2 defeat against West Ham United on a night to forget at the London Stadium on Tuesday.
A quick-fire first half double from Carlos Soler & Tomas Soucek saw West Ham take a commanding lead into the break before Alex Iwobi gave Fulham a lifeline early in the second half.
Lucas Paqueta restored a two goal cushion in the 68th minute before Iwobi struck again with ten minutes left to provide a glimmer of hope but it was too little too late.
Marco Silva made five changes to the side that eased through to the next round of the Emirates FA Cup on Thursday evening at Craven Cottage.
Bernd Leno, Antonee Robinson, Calvin Bassey, Harry Wilson & Raul Jimenez all retuned to the starting XI on a chilly evening at the London Stadium.
After controlling the opening stages of the game, Fulham were denied an early opener by the woodwork in the fifth minute.
A clever throw-in from Robinson over the West Ham back line found Iwobi on the byline who looped in a first time cross into a dangerous area 6 yards from goal.
With players converging Wilson reacted the quickest and his first time effort cannoned off the bar and clear.
After dominating the opening quarter of the game West Ham began to slowly push and press and enjoy spells in our half.
However, our threat remained and in the 24th minute a swift counterattack culminating in Robinson flashing a left-footed effort across the face of goal showed our potential potency on the break.
In the 31st minute the deadlock was broken after some sloppy play at the back from Fulham.
Match Stats |
West Ham |
Fulham |
Goals |
(2) 3 |
2 (0) |
|
Scorers |
Soler 31 |
Iwobi 51 |
Scorers |
Soucek 33 |
Iwobi 78 |
Scorers |
Paqueta 67 |
- |
 , |
Goal attempts |
4 |
21 |
On target |
3 |
5 |
Shooting Accuracy |
75% |
24% |
Possession |
43% |
56% |
Passes |
415 |
514 |
Passes Success |
83% |
85% |
Corners |
0 |
3 |
Tackles |
14 |
13 |
Tackles Success |
57% |
54% |
Saves |
2 |
0 |
Fouls |
9 |
18 |
Offsides |
5 |
0 |
Yellows |
3 |
3 |
Reds |
0 |
0 |
source: SkySports |
An attempted pass across the face of goal from Andreas Pereira fell to the feet of Soler.
With our back line at sixes and sevens and Leno out of position the Spaniard kept his cool and lashed a curled effort into the bottom corner.
Things went from bad to worse a minute later.
A lofted through ball over our back line appeared to be heading out of play but the ball held up and a superb cut back from Aaron Wan-Bissakka was neatly side-footed past a wrong-footed Leno in the Fulham goal by Soucek.
A baffling turn of events after an excellent opening.
We were denied once again by the woodwork when Jimenez thumped a header off the bar after connecting cleanly with an Alex Iwobi cross.
It was time to regroup and plan and flush what was a frustrating opening 45.
The second half started in the perfect fashion as we clawed within one five minutes after the referee got things back under way.
Allowed far too much time and space on the left wing, Iwobi swung a lethal cross in from the flank.
After timing his run expertly Jimenez distracted lukasz Fabianski just enough to allow the ball to bounce and bobble in past the Polish keeper.
A lifeline for Fulham.
The hope was short-lived and after some more self-sabotage at the back the hosts lead was restored to two.
With Fulham working their way back into the encounter Leno lingered too long on the ball looking to play out from the back and we were punished.
Danny Ings, fresh on to the pitch pressed and jarred the ball directly to the feet of Paqueta who had the simple task of passing the ball into the net.
When all seemed lost, Iwobi struck again with another cross turned shot in the 79th minute.
The Nigerian, in a confident mood, lofted a ball over a static West Ham back line.
With Wilson buzzing to connect with the delivery Fabianski again committed and was undone, as the ball bypassed him and nestled in the back of the net.
Two minutes into stoppage time Adama Traoré had a guilt edge chance to pull us level.
Josh King, introduced late into the encounter skipped past his man and slid an excellent ball across the face of goal.
After being partially cleared the ball fell to Adama at the back post.
The Spaniard went for power and blasted his effort over the bar from close range.
Despite some late nerves from the hosts, we were unable to pull back and would head back to West London ruing uncharacteristic lapses of concentration on a night to flush from the system quick.
Fulham boss Marco Silva:
"We are penalised by our own mistakes and it is clear it is our fault that we lost the game. We created enough chances to have been in front and West Ham weren't going around our box at all.
"We made a mistake in our build-up and we felt that mistake to lead to the second. We lost the first duel and then the second. We lost our principle for a few minutes.
"They played almost the whole second half defensively but we then gave another goal. Raul and Adama had two big chances to equalise so it is clear the result didn't reflect what happened on the pitch. But we cannot make it so easy for a team to punish us."
West Ham : Fabianski, Wan Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson (Cresswell 81), Alvarez, Rodriguez (Scarles 81), Kudus (Ings 63), Soucek, Soler (Irving 72), Paqueta
Unused substitutes: Coufal, Guilherme, Foderingham, Casey, Orford
Goals:
Soler 31 (right footed shot from the left side of the box to the bottom right corner.)
Soucek 33 (right footed shot from the centre of the box to the high centre of the goal. Assisted by Aaron Wan-Bissaka.)
Paqueta 67 ( left footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Danny Ings.)
Yellow Card: Paqueta (53,f), Soucek (66,f), Wan Bissak (70,f),
Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson, Lukic, Pereira (Cairney 68), Wilson (King 85), Smith Rowe (Traore 68), Iwobi (Muniz 85), Jimenez
Unused substitutes: Reed, Cuenca, Benda, Sessegnon, Diop
Goals:
Iwobi 51 (right footed shot from long range on the left to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Antonee Robinson.)
Iwobi 78 ( right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Antonee Robinson.)
Yellow Card: Castagne (44,f), Lukic (65,f), Jimenez (97)
Referee:
Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire)
Attendance: 0
Fulham are next in action at 15.00 on Saturday 18th January when the face Leicester City at King Power Stadium.