Ipswich Town 1-3 Fulham
at Portman Road
by Asif Burhan

CHAMPIONSHIP pace-setters Ipswich Town went down to their first defeat since August as they were comprehensively outplayed by Premier League Fulham at Portman Road in the League Cup on Wednesday night.

Dominant from the start with their high press which squeezed the home side into repeatedly giving away possession, Fulham took the lead within the first nine minutes when the impressive Bobby Decordova-Reid split the Ipswich defence wide open switching the play to the right where Harry Wilson was in oceans of space. He comfortably side-stepped the onrushing goalkeeper Walton to roll the ball into an empty net.

Fulham continued to dominate throughout the remainder of the first half, suffocating Ipswich and limiting the Championship's joint-top scorers to one shot on target. At the other end, Fulham hit the woodwork twice and it was no surprise when they doubled their lead five minutes into the second half.

Andreas Pereira fired in a sharp cross from the right which was missed by Ipswich debutant Axel Tuanzebe allowing Rodrigo Muniz to tap home at the far post. The match was put beyond the home side when Decordova-Reid escaped once more down the right and squared for Thomas Cairney to fire home. 

A far-post header by substitute centre back Elkan Baggott from a corner two minutes later only provided Ipswich with the consolation of maintaining their record of scoring in every game they've played since February.

Striker Kayden Jackson was one of eleven changes to the starting line-up made by Ipswich from the weekend's victory over Plymouth Argyle. Despite defeating Premier League Wolves in the previous round, he admitted Fulham "were a level above what we've faced".

"The best teams, they always feel like they've got a man extra. The boys worked tirelessly, we were trying to match them and they obviously keep the ball really well and use the overload to punish you in behind."

Marco Silva said Fulham, who were drawn away to Everton in the quarter-finals, had focused on attempting to steal the ball from their opposition high up the pitch. "One of the things that we planned was to start really strong, to not let them settle in their game, go to press them really high. It was what we did from the first moment and take the ball from them."

"We know that most of the time they have the ball in the Championship. We knew if we take the ball from them and if we play our way it's going to be more difficult for them."

Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna, whose side have won 24 of their last 28 league games, believes his squad would learn valuable lessons from the defeat. "It was a tough game, no doubt about that, but I think a game and a night we'll be much stronger for. I'm pleased with how we stuck at it, I'm pleased with how we kept trying until the last minute. We tried to stick to our football and there's big positives that we can take from tonight."