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Fulham boss Marco Silva: we deserve to progress

last updated Thursday 09th February 2023, 10:10 AM


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Fulham coach Marco Silva
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Fulham boss Marco Silva gave credit to our opponents on Wednesday night, but felt his Fulham side deserved their place in Round Five of the Emirates FA Cup.

“Firstly, congratulations to Sunderland,” he said. “They obligated us to play 180 minutes in this round. They made it difficult for us.

“And of course, congratulations to our players and our fans, because we are going to play in the Fifth Round, which was our clear goal from the first time we played against them at the Cottage.

“I think from the first minute we were the better team on the pitch. We played one or two touches every time, some moments we played a little bit slower than we would like, but from the first minute we created dangerous moments around their box.

“We scored early in the game which gave us the confidence to control the game in a different way. First 30 minutes we probably created enough chances to score the second goal and to be even more comfortable in the game.”

With Fulham a goal to the good at half-time, Silva did not rest on his laurels, introducing Aleksandar Mitrovic and Andreas Pereira at the break.

“At 1-0, they are always going to believe, even at 2-0 they believed, and at 3-1 as well,” he explained.

“The last 15 minutes of the first half, we lost a little bit of our shape and our pressure was not at the level it should be, and because of that we decided to change things and start the second half with Mitro and Andreas Pereira.

“The team improved, our shape improved off the ball as well. We scored the second goal and, at that moment, everyone probably thought the game would be killed but, at this level, never.

“They believed until the end, they scored to make it 2-1, and even with our reaction to make it 3-1 they kept believing.

“It was a real FA Cup tie, with two teams playing to go through, but overall tonight we were the best team.”

One big blot on the evening came right at the end when Tom Cairney took a knock following a counter-attack, and had to be helped from the pitch at full-time

“They are assessing him,” Silva stated. “Tom Cairney was clearly the best player on the pitch. By far.

“A great, great performance from him. Another one. A great performance from him. In the last minute he got an injury, let’s see if it’s really serious or not.

“They are assessing him, at the beginning it seemed a little bit more serious, now we are more confident it probably won’t be, but later tonight, tomorrow, in two days’ time we are going to see.

“It’s not just him, Harrison Reed as well had some problems, he twisted his knee a little bit, so let’s see in the next few days. Time is really short for the next game, but we will see.”






















Source Geoff Pruce at Fulham FC
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