West Ham United 0-2 Fulham. Andreas Pereira scored twice to give Fulham a rare win at West Ham in the Premier League.
Despite a nervy start, Fulham took an early lead when Konstantinos Mavropanos failed to deal with Alex Iwobi’s tricky ball into the box.
The mistake was leapt upon by Pereira, who swerved past Lukasz Fabianski before slotting into an empty net.
The Brazilian doubled the visitors’ lead when he tapped in from close range at London Stadium.
It is the first time the Cottagers have won a Premier League game at West Ham since 2001.
Victory completed Fulham’s league double over the Hammers – their first since the 1965-66 season – and lifted them up to 12th in the table.
David Moyes’ West Ham side failed to boost their chances of European qualification by jumping above Newcastle and Manchester United into sixth.
There was a lengthy stoppage just before the end of normal time after George Earthy – only minutes into his league debut for West Ham – suffered a nasty head injury when colliding with team-mate Edson Alvarez.
Earthy, 19, appeared to lose consciousness after his head hit the turf and received medical attention for about seven minutes before being carried off on a stretcher and replaced by Maxwel Cornet.
It seems like a long time since Fulham secured a 5-0 win over West Ham in the reverse fixture at Craven Cottage in December.
The goals stopped flowing for the Cottagers over the past couple of weeks, but, after Pereira’s opener, it looked like the visitors could open the floodgates again.
Pereira was a threat throughout, narrowly missing with two half-volleys in the first half before tapping home Iwobi’s pass across the face of the goal.
Rodrigo Muniz, too, looked dangerous, but, after scoring four goals in his four previous games, he could not keep his hot streak going with Fabianski smothering three efforts by the Brazilian.
The three points collected against West Ham gives Marco Silva’s side a glimmer of hope by closing the gap to seventh in the table – the final guaranteed European spot – to eight points.
Behind Tottenham and Aston Villa’s battle for fourth place and a spot in the Champions League, the pursuit for lower-tiered European football next season continues.
However, West Ham’s lack of a clinical finisher against Fulham meant their bid for a fourth successive European campaign suffered a major blow.
With top scorer Jarrod Bowen absent through injury, Moyes had gone with Michail Antonio up front against Bayer Leverkusen on Thursday and he opted for the Jamaica forward again, partnering him alongside Danny Ings.
However, the partnership failed to click into gear and they managed just one shot on target between them.
After losing 2-0 to Leverkusen in the Europa League quarter-finals, Sunday’s performance suggested a comeback victory in the reverse fixture will be a struggle.
source – BBC
