Manager says “you can’t control” these kinds of games; Fulham boss praises his team’s fighting spirit
Pep Guardiola says it is “impossible” to explain how Fulham came from 5-1 down to 5-4 against Manchester City at Craven Cottage on Tuesday, nearly equalising at the death but for a goal-line clearance from Josko Gvardiol.
City were four goals clear just after the break and appeared to have the match settled. Instead, they ended the night clinging on with Fulham banging hard on the door.
“Did you enjoy that, guys?” Pep Guardiola asked. “Me? Impossible.
“It’s the Premier League. You can’t control. I know you’re going to ask what happened and I don’t have an answer. It’s the emotion, it’s the football. When that happens, it’s just a question of survival. Don’t tell me how, the players don’t know either. At the end we take it.”
Erling Haaland opened the scoring early on to become the fastest player to reach 100 Premier League goals, doing so in just 111 appearances. Further goals from Tijjani Reijnders and Phil Foden put City firmly in control.
Fulham pulled one back with an Emile Smith Rowe header, but any belief of a comeback seemed fanciful once Foden added his second and Jeremy Doku’s shot deflected in to make it 5-1 shortly after half-time.
But then Alex Iwobi curled home from distance before substitute Samuel Chukwueze scored twice in six minutes to leave the home crowd baying for the equaliser with over 10 minutes of normal time still to be played.
“It was impossible for me to enjoy it,” said Guardiola. “At 5-1 maybe, but at 5-4 I was watching the clock more than the game. It was tough and it would have been tougher if we could not get the result, but I will remember I was there.
“At 5-1 you [the media] thought it was finished. You had written your articles. Tomorrow: ‘Manchester City are back … finally.’ And after, to the trash. You have to start again.”
Fulham manager Marco Silva praised his players for their fighting spirit.
“What they showed was impressive,” Silva said. “Normally losing a heavy score against a side like City many things can go in their mind.
“Maybe the damage is done, don’t take any risks. But the reaction from the boys was unbelievable, and we probably deserved a fifth goal to equalise the game.”
