Nobody has given Fulham much of a chance against Liverpool in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup and there was a moment on Tuesday afternoon when the manager, Marco Silva, acknowledged that.
It is not just Fulham’s lack of pedigree; they have contested just seven major cup semi-finals in their 145-year history, winning two, and have never won a major trophy. It is because this is Liverpool, so richly decorated, bang in form and 2-1 up from the first leg at Anfield two weeks ago.
Before Wednesday night’s Craven Cottage return, a remark from the Fulham midfielder João Palhinha spoke volumes. “I don’t remember the last time that they lost,” he said. Maybe it is because Liverpool have done so only once in a game of real consequence this season – that one at Tottenham in September.
The dreams of the Fulham fanbase are nevertheless vivid. They have made significant strides under Silva; the Championship title in his first season in 2021-22 and then something more impressive: comfortable survival in the Premier League. After Fulham’s previous two promotions from the Championship, they had gone straight back down.
Silva’s team set club records for number of Premier League wins in a season (15) and goals scored in the division (55). They managed to beat Chelsea for the first time in 17 years. Good things are happening; their yo-yo tag no longer feels appropriate. They even had a decent cup run for the first time since 2009-10 when they reached the FA Cup quarter-finals, losing at Manchester United.
The current run has been better still, sparking excitement and the hope that the club could be primed to enjoy a decisive breakthrough. When supporters close their eyes and watch the second leg against Liverpool play out, it looks exactly like the last time they made it this far in a competition.
It was 2009-10, the Europa League semi-final against Hamburg and, after a 0-0 first-leg draw in Germany, they trailed to an away goal at Craven Cottage. Needing two to complete the comeback, they got them on one of the old stadium’s most famous nights. It was always going to take something special to top the four-goal swing that they fashioned to beat Juventus at Craven Cottage in the last 16. This was it.
Silva talked a good deal about attitude and belief, and there is a third comeback victory on home turf that is in the minds of Fulham fans – when they recovered from a 1-0 first-leg defeat at Derby in the 2018 Championship playoff semi-final to win 2-0 in the return. These type of things can happen.
“You can leave legacies because of results,” Silva said. “When you are a type of club like Fulham … in terms of titles, it’s more difficult to do it. But if you have the chance to fight for it, you are going to. It is not often but there have been good nights at Craven Cottage in the cup or Europa League. It’s something that I’ve listened to over the last two and a half years. Let’s hope we can repeat it tomorrow.”
Fulham have never previously reached a League Cup semi-final. They have got to the last four of the FA Cup six times, their lone success coming in a replay against Birmingham in 1975. John Mitchell got the winner in the last minute of extra time and, as such, he is a club legend.
“When you make history at a club, your name is written into its history,” Palhinha said. “This is the only thing that people will remember. If you pass through a club and you don’t reach good things, I don’t think anybody will remember you in the future.”
Silva has yet to beat Liverpool in four attempts with Fulham but he has gone close, starting with the 2-2 home draw against them in the opening game of last season. This past December, his team were 3-2 up in the league at Anfield with three minutes to play before losing 4-3.
Nobody could argue that Liverpool were not value for their 2-1 semi-final lead and yet after Willian had scored first for Fulham, they blew a glorious chance for 2-0 when Bobby De Cordova-Reid failed to square for the unmarked Andreas Pereira. Fulham did not manage the game or the occasion after Curtis Jones had equalised.
It was interesting to hear Silva bring up Fulham’s shock Carabao Cup exit at Crawley last season – and go back to it on a number of occasions. He said it was a good time to change things in terms of his players’ mentality, to remind them of the need to give the maximum in every competition and against every opponent. “Since then, we start to look for these competitions with ambition,” he said. Now for the moment of truth.
