Fulham manager Marco Silva was not happy with the goals Fulham gave up to Manchester City on Wednesday evening.
A ruthless 15 minute spell in the first half proved pivotal, as the hosts struck three times through Antoine Semenyo, Nico O’Reilly and Erling Haaland to claim the point.
“Not good, not good enough, definitely,” was Silva’s initial assessment of the game.
“Of course, as always, we have to be humble enough to congratulate our opponent, and definitely City were better than us, simple as that. But, looking for us as always, we were not at the level.
“We knew how probably they were going to start, their high press, and on the ball clearly we didn't play in the way we are capable to play. The man on man that City put most of the time during the first half, we were not able to break.
“One or two moments we did it – that was the reason, for example, that created the chance with Harry Wilson when the game was 1-0 and we had a big chance to equalise.
“But even so, overall, it was not at a level that we are capable to play, definitely. That was not good enough, and we gave some cheap goals. Simple as that.
“The first goal, [we] tried to make a clearance, instead of going in the right direction the ball went to Semenyo.
“The way we're not able to stop the counter attack in the second goal as well. That is the two against one on Haaland, we have to do much better in that moment. That was seconds after the chance with Harry Wilson to equalise the game.
“Simple as that, they were better than us. Even so, not performing so well, the reality is we had the chance with Harry Wilson to equalise the game. End of the first half, big chance with Raúl one on one with [Gianluigi] Donnarumma as well.
“These type of games, even if you aren’t at your best level, when you have a chance, you have to be clinical and ruthless there. We weren't, and that was the reason why we were losing the game at half-time.
“Second half was different, of course City didn't press so high, [because] they were winning the game, they went in a different direction. We had more control of the game. Not big chances for both sides, I think it was a really balanced second half.
“We definitely congratulate City, but we are capable to do much better, and we cannot be happy with our performance at all.”