Fulham narrowly defeated Aston Villa 1-0, scoring their first win and goal in three games and moving into the final European places in the standings at the start of the weekend.
After Sasa Lukic’s header was on target, homegrown hero Ryan Sessegnon produced one of Craven Cottage’s few clear-cut chances with a composed finish.
“There are four games left and I hope we can achieve it,” the winner told TNT Sports after the match. “We’re three points closer to our goal. We have to keep moving forward. It’s not over yet.”
It was Villa who arrived in west London hoping to further strengthen their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League and move past Man United into third place, but they lacked any cutting-edge elements and could instead be overtaken by fifth-placed Liverpool later on Saturday.
Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rodgers both narrowly missed their first-half goals, but despite dominating the ball throughout the second period, a clear error from Tammy Abraham in the 84th minute denied them another chance.
The visiting team were initially willing to concede possession and territory to Fulham, much to the frustration of the hosts, but they lacked the bite and fluidity that hurt them on the break, until efforts from Rodgers and Watkins suggested things might be starting to click.
Instead Fulham came forward and allowed a cross from the right, Jiménez’s diving header was saved by Emiliano Martínez, and Sessegnon survived to grab the rebound and score his first goal since March 21.
Villa emerged as a different team, playing 10 yards up the pitch, but still lacked the touch they needed and almost got penalized again when Timothy Castagne nodded in Sasa Lukic’s corner kick, only for Sander Berge to be penalized for a foul on Martínez.
This left Villa with a chance of snatching a well-deserved point, and substitute Abraham, the hero of their game against Sunderland a week ago, should have swung home past Andersen to equalize, leaving Fulham dreaming of repeating their run to the Europa League final 16 years ago.
Silva: I knew this was a must-win match.
Fulham manager Marco Silva comments to TNT Sports:
It’s a great win for us. A huge 3 points. We knew before the game that this was a must-win match if we were to continue fighting for something special until the end of the season and maintain our position in the European competition.
“I’m very happy that we were able to take advantage of their abilities and keep them scoreless in the game. We kept them very quiet.”
Emery: I needed to be more clinical.
Aston Villa manager Unai Emery told TNT Sports:
“We lost a really good opportunity. The players did everything we planned, but we needed to be more clinical.
“The game was quite even, sometimes for us, sometimes for them. We created some chances to score, but it was very difficult. They have good players and coaches and to win against a team like Fulham is something we have to strive for, because it can happen.”
