Fulham 2-2 Liverpool
Fulham were unbeaten in both their Premier League clashes against Liverpool during their most recent top flight campaign two seasons ago.
In fact, their 1-0 victory at Anfield in March last year was their final triumph in the 2020-21 campaign.
Now they are back, promoted with a bit to spare last term, and again have a result against the Merseysiders to be proud of.
In an entertaining opener, the newly promoted Cottagers led twice before being pegged back but held on for a deserved point and a result which defied the SBOTOP Premier League betting odds.
Highlights of the game
Marco Silva’s men may have been without Harry Wilson, Nathaniel Chalobah and Joe Bryan but they did have a player with a point to prove – questioned whether or not he could repeat his Championship goalscoring success in the top flight.
Well, if this opener is anything to go by, the answer is an emphatic yes.
For Fulham, who had shown signs of promise in a friendly against Villarreal last weekend, repeated it on the big stage with Aleksandar Mitrovic spearheading their attack.
Just after the half hour mark, he got the better of Trent Alexander-Arnold to head in a superb cross by Kenny Tete.
And with 16 minutes remaining, he ran at the visitors’ defence, drawing a foul from Virgil van Dijk and dusting himself up to coolly convert the resulting penalty.
Of course, Liverpool are unbeaten in the league in 2022 and there’s plenty of quality in the squad of last year’s runners-up, hoping to go one better than last season which ended up in a bitterly disappointing final week for those involved with the club.
They fought back when new signing Darwin Nunez levelled shortly after entering the fray early in the second half and then again when Nunez set up Mohamed Salah for a second equaliser 10 minutes from time.
That was two minutes after the Liverpool attack was joined by the player who supplied a number of Mitrovic’s goals last term, Fabio Carvalho, snapped up as soon as the league campaign concluded.
Yet despite Jordan Henderson shooting against the crossbar in stoppage time, Fulham were not to be denied a fine point.
That was actually the third time in the match the woodwork had been struck with Liverpool’s Colombian international Luis Diaz and new Fulham man Neeskens Kebano both hitting the post in a contest of Premier League highlights.
Fulham, for whom new signings João Palhinha and Andreas Pereira enjoyed fine home debuts in midfield. scored 106 league goals on their way to winning the Championship title last term.
Each of their last three Premier League campaigns have ended in relegation – 2013-14, 2018-19 and 2020-21.
If Mitrovic’s double helps them seal safety this season, they will have been worth just as much as his contribution then.
Key statistics
Salah has scored on the opening day in all six seasons he has played for Liverpool.
This was his 158th goal for the club, putting him level with Michael Owen in eighth place on the club’s all-time scorers list.
Mitrovic has scored 44 goals in 45 league matches since the start of last season, 15 more than any other player in England’s four divisions.
Nunez is only the third player to score and assist from the bench on his Premier League debut after Sergio Agüero (Man City, 2011-12) and Álvaro Morata (Chelsea, 2017-18).
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 20 Premier League games (won 16, drawn four), a run stretching back to last December.
What’s next?
Fulham travel to the ‘black country’ next Saturday as they visit Wolves before returning home on August 20 against Brentford.
Liverpool have two successive Monday games at home to Crystal Palace (Aug 15) and at arch rivals Manchester United (Aug 22).
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