West Ham 2-3 Fulham
by Paul Donovan
at the London Stadium

WEST HAM were unlucky to go out of the League Cup after a hard fought game against Fulham at the London Stadium.

The game was 12 minutes old when Antonee Robinson fed Cesar Palacios, whose cross from the byline was easily headed home by Rodrigo Munoz. 

But West Ham were quickly back on terms, when a cross from Arne Engels was headed back by Konstantinos Mavropanos for Morato to head home on the goal line.

Fulham were back in front, when a punt from the back found Palacios who ran through to score.

West Ham were quickly back level after a Kyle Walker-Peters cross was deflected across by Mohamadou Kante for Pablo to finish at the far post.

Early in the second half, a Jarrod Bowen cross shot was nearly touched home by Pablo.

Then, a through ball from Taty Castellanos found Manor Solomon, who was unlucky to see his effort deflected for a corner. 

Mavropanos then saw his header from Bowen’s corner go narrowly wide.

The West Ham defence switched off, allowing Oscar Bobb to stride through the penalty area and fire home.

West Ham’s final chance to equalise saw Castellanos meet a Bowen cross but his effort was cleared off the line. 

Fulham hung on to progress to the next round. 

Hammers head coach Nuno Espirito Santo felt his team provided a reasonable performance but the mistakes were punished.

He felt the experience will help the young players who came in.

Fulham head coach Alvaro Arbeloa felt the work his squad had done over the past two days paid off. He felt Fulham could have scored more goals and was disappointed at conceding at a set piece.