Ings Grabs Precious Point For Hammers At Fulham
Fulham were just seconds away from claiming their third straight victory over West Ham United at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon but the Hammers wanted their revenge for last seasons 5-0 defeat here and, they got it as they salvaged a point in a 1-1 draw.
Julen Lopetegui made one change to the starting line-up that faced Manchester City a fortnight ago, as Tomáš Souček replaced Lucas Paquetá, who dropped to the bench. Alphonse Areola was back in goal after picking up an injury during the break against the Citizens, while Vladimír Coufal, new signing Carlos Soler and Aaron Cresswell were included amongst the substitutes. Niclas Füllkrug missed out on selection because of a calf injury.
Fulham started well and might have been ahead on two occasions in the early stages but fortunately, Areola was on hand to thwart both Andreas Pereira and Raúl Jiménez. The visitors were then fortunate to survive a VAR call following Max Kilman’s challenge on Adama Traore.
The home side had three chances to edge themselves ahead but neither Alex Iwobi, nor Traore could take advantage.
On twenty four minutes however, Marco Silva’s side, who had been dominant up to this point, finally got their reward when a great team move eventually ended with Jiménez getting past Kilman to beat the visiting stopper.
Both Pereira and Traore had opportunities to increase the hosts’ lead before the break but after two minutes of stoppage time had been played, referee Tim Robinson blew his whistle.
Lopetegui made a double change before the teams reemerged for the second-half, as both Paquetá, along with Crysencio Summerville, took the places of Souček and Michail Antonio.
The two changes appeared to make a difference, as the Irons clicked into gear with the former Leeds United man making an immediate impact. He was awarded a free-kick, which in turn resulted in their first effort on target however, the only problem was that Konstantinos Mavropanos headed the ball straight at home goalkeeper Bernd Leno. Shortly after, the East Londoners suffered a blow when Emerson Palmieri picked up an injury and was replaced by Coufal.
West Ham then launched a promising counter-attack, but it unfortunately ended when Mohammed Kudus crossed for Jarrod Bowen to try his luck but the German made a crucial save.
The momentum had certainly swung in favour of the East Londoners by this point and might have levelled matters through Paquetá but unfortunately, his attempt went narrowly wide.
West Ham’s new Head-Coach introduced his fourth substitution of the afternoon, as Carlos Soler entered the fray for Guido Rodríguez.
With twenty minutes of normal time to play, the Cottagers were applying pressure but fortunately, they were unable to make it count.
After Lopetegui had seen Kudus fire wide, the Spaniard replaced Edson Álvarez with Danny Ings and with seconds of the five minutes that were added on at the end of the game to play, the former Southampton, Liverpool, Burnley and Aston Villa player made sure that the visitors would return home with something.
Lopetegui’s men now have a full week to prepare for Saturday’s early kick-off at home to Chelsea.