Fulham kept up their challenge for a European place as Clint Dempsey’s double sealed a 3-1 victory at Manchester City on Sunday.
After 14 league matches without an away success this season, Roy Hodgson’s side have now won their last two games away from Craven Cottage.
The west London team, who won at Bolton in their last away fixture, fell behind to Stephen Ireland’s deflected first-half strike at Eastlands, but produced an impressive second-half display to move within a point of seventh-placed West Ham.
Dempsey equalized soon after the interval and then former City trainee Dickson Etuhu put the Cottagers in front, before Dempsey’s second wrapped up the points.
City boss Mark Hughes’ patience with Robinho finally snapped as he left the club record signing on the bench.
Robinho was on City midfielder Ireland’s mind when he accused his teammates of lacking fighting spirit after Thursday’s 3-1 UEFA Cup quarter-final defeat at Hamburg.
Ireland certainly wasn’t hiding and it was his pass that released Valeri Bojinov, only for the striker to lash his shot wide.
Richard Dunne presented Fulham with a chance when he misjudged a Simon Davies pass, allowing Bobby Zamora to turn and shoot. But City keeper Shay Given was equal to the effort.
Ireland showed City’s slackers how to do it when he made the breakthrough in the 28th minute.
The midfielder ran from deep inside his own half without facing a single Fulham challenge.
When he eventually decided to pull the trigger, his shot took a deflection off Fulham midfielder Etuhu before looping over Schwarzer and into the net.
Only Manchester United have won more home games than City, but the visitors drew level in the 50th minute.
Pablo Zabaleta gifted possession to Bobby Zamora and, when Micah Richards slid in to tackle, the ball fell perfectly for Dempsey to slot past Given.
It was the first time Given had conceded at Eastlands since arriving in January and he was soon picking the ball out of the net again.
In the 59th minute, City midfielder Nigel de Jong’s weak clearance was seized on by Etuhu, who drove a fine strike past Given from the edge of the penalty area. Etuhu, playing against his brother Kelvin in City’s midfield, had extra reason to celebrate as it was his first goal for the club.
Hughes responded by sending on Robinho and Daniel Sturridge and the strike duo combined immediately. Sturridge’s pass sent Robinho clear, but the Brazilian’s shot was too near Schwarzer.
Fulham scored their third in the 83rd minute. Zamora’s pass caught Richards napping and Dempsey surged clear to deliver the knockout blow.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS