Fulham managed to hold on and advance to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup with a 3-2 win over West Ham.
Oscar Bobb netted his first Fulham goal as the Cottagers held on to defeat West Ham 3-2 at the London Stadium and advance to the Fourth Round of the Carabao Cup.
Fulham led three times in the match but were quickly pegged back twice in the first half in a ding-dong battle in East London.
Rodrigo Muniz scored after 13 minutes to give Fulham an early lead, heading in a good ball played in by Cesar Palacios.
But Fulham held the lead for just three minutes, with Morato himself heading in from close range after a header across the box from Konstantinos Mavropanos.
The game continued to ebb and flow, and there were considerable chances for both sides.
Fulham’s next one came following an excellent through ball from Joachim Andersen, whose pass found Palacios.
The Spaniard had a lot to do, having made an excellent run beyond the West Ham defence.
He was able to touch it down into his path, though and run on brilliantly into the box, before coolly slotting past Finlay Herrick in the West Ham goal.
Once again though, Fulham were pegged back, this time through Pablo Felipe’s first goal for the Hammers.
So, the sides went in at the break at 2-2 and Fulham knew they would have work to do to pick up a result and advance into the next round of the competition.
And that job was only made harder quite quickly as Jarrod Bowen and Manor Solomon instantly massively improved the quality that West Ham had on shown when they came onto the pitch five minutes into the second half.
Antonee Robinson had the next major chance of note on the hour mark, with his effort tipped over the bar well by Herrick.
Alvaro Arbeloa had spoken pre-match about how important this game is for Fulham and he backed up those words with some important substitutions three minutes later.
Shea Charles came on and was joined in the midfield pivot by Manuel Angel, who looked calm and poised when he came on.
Fulham were still unable to unlock West Ham though and it was time to bring on their big hitters in attack.
On came Gonzalo Garcia, Josh King and Oscar Bobb and their quality on the field was felt very quickly.
King was able to supply an excellent ball into the box that was very nearly met by Garcia but some strong defending turned that one away.
Just a few moments later, though, it was King again who pressed high up and pitch and was able to steal the ball, which found its way into the feet of Bobb.
The Norwegian showed his excellent dribbling ability by weaving in and out of a few West Ham defenders, before slotting through the legs of Herrick.
West Ham came and Jarrod Bowen had a chance a player of his quality should do better with but in the end it was enough for Fulham to hold on and take a hugely important win and advance into the next round of the Carabao Cup.
