Fulham’s win over Rotherham United on Friday night went by without much fanfare, but secured at least one result. There would be no replay of the FA Cup with the championship wrestlers and no interruption of the winter break for the team. An extended few days off opens the door to a short mid-season vacation.
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“The hottest place so, right now… Dubai,” Bobby De Cordova-Reid says of his escape from the cold of an English winter. “We made sure to win.”
A brain-clearing interlude will be welcome and, to that end, the 1-0 win over Rotherham is priceless. Avoiding a midweek replay in Yorkshire next week also helped maintain the 11-day interval between the derby against Chelsea on Saturday and the Carabao Cup semi-final at home against Liverpool, which could be the club’s biggest cup game in a decade.
Tonight (Wednesday), Fulham innovate. For the first time since the creation of the Coupe de los angeles Ligue in 1961, they will participate in the semi-finals. Two matches, the first of which at Anfield, will decide whether Marco Silva’s side qualify for Wembley against Chelsea or Middlesbrough on Sunday, February 25. It would be a fitting way to cap off his two-and-a-half-year progress with the Portuguese coach.
But Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League leaders stand in his way.
“If you’re looking to win a cup, you’re going to have to beat the big teams,” says De Cordova-Reid. “This is one of them. It’s best to play against them on either leg. It gives us more opportunity. But we appreciate it. We are not afraid of it. We didn’t hesitate to do so. We’ll give you one hundred percent. Let’s hope that’s enough.
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Fulham are no longer also-rans in the cup competitions. In the past 12 months, they have already gone close to returning to Wembley, site of some of the club’s most treasured moments in recent years following two Championship play-off final victories.
At Trafford in March, in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Silva and his side flew too close to the sun and squandered a 1-0 lead and 70 minutes of promising football as a Wembley semi-final began to draw them in. Three red cards in quick succession contributed to the 3-1 defeat to Manchester United.
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“We are informed of every moment,” said Silva, one of the three ejected that afternoon. “We lost our minds, but there were reasons. I don’t need to go back to that.
“Until then, what I had in my brain was carried out. We did very well. If you ask me if I would like to perform at this point on Wednesday?One hundred percent. If you ask me if I need my team to play with this personality, to play in front of a difficult crowd instead of a very smart team. I’d love to. “
De Cordova-Reid and Silva have already reached this level of the League Cup.
De Cordova-Reid opted for Bristol City when they reached the last 16 as a league team under Lee Johnson six years ago, before a 5-3 aggregate defeat to eventual winners Manchester City. Silva, meanwhile, had only been at Hull City. for five days in January 2017 when they faced José Mourinho’s Manchester United.
“It all happened so fast,” he said. It’s my second game.
“When you play the semi-final of this competition, it is a special moment. But the final is more special. If you need to be there, you have to do it and face it with confidence, knowing that you can do anything special. and prepare your players to face a wonderful team.
Silva’s Hull lost 2-0 at Old Trafford but, at home, won 2-1, snapping United’s 17-match unbeaten run and ratcheting up the tension as they chased down a third to force extra time as time went on. It was a close affair. These fixtures are rarely uncompetitive and, Liverpool are the best in the Premier League with almost double their 24 games after 20 league games, Fulham can be encouraged by their recent record against them.
Since 2018, Fulham have beaten Liverpool once in seven meetings, but have also lost to them by more than one goal on one occasion. In the last three years, the overall score is 8-7 for Liverpool in five games and since then, returning to the Premier League with Silva in the summer of 2022, some of Fulham’s performances have been opposed by Klopp’s side.
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A 2-2 draw at Craven Cottage on the opening day of last season kicked off their top-flight history. And last month, they came within 10 minutes of a remarkable away win, putting Liverpool under pressure before suffering a 4-3 defeat.
So it’s not about going back to Anfield.
“We were always in the game in December and unfortunate not to get something,” De Cordova-Reid says. “We know we can mix it with them. We’re optimistic.”
The draw might not have been favourable, but a home leg offers a glimmer of hope. The recent 2-1 win over visiting Arsenal, who were chasing the title, has only boosted confidence on the pitch. “We played our most productive game against Arsenal,” said De Cordova-Reid. “If we work hard and do the right things, we can beat anyone in our day. That’s in the back of our minds. “
Beating Liverpool in that draw would be one of the club’s greatest achievements, along with their other two major cup finals: the 1975 FA Cup and the 2010 Europa League. Silva is not one to hide his ambitions for himself and the team and it has proved contagious. , putting Fulham on the verge of winning their first major trophy.
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“Some say it’s a dream, and for our fans, I love it when they have the chance to dream,” Silva says. “It means you are doing something right.
“But for me it’s more of an ambition than a dream. If you get the chance and strive to be there, you have to take the next step: conquer Liverpool and triumph in the final. If you succeed, we will have the chance to make history again.
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(Top photo: Visionhaus/Getty Images)