Fulham 2-1 Sunderland

Aleksandar MitrovicImage source, Rex Features
Image caption,

Aleksandar Mitrovic scored his 12th goal in his past 13 games for Fulham

Fulham moved back into the automatic promotion places but had to come from behind to beat relegated Sunderland.

The Black Cats, who are now sure to finish bottom, took a surprise lead through Joel Asoro's fine low strike.

The hosts were well short of their best but levelled on the stroke of half-time when Lucas Piazon slotted in.

Aleksandar Mitrovic headed home at the far post to put Fulham two points above Cardiff and send the Championship promotion race into the final weekend.

The battle to finish second behind champions Wolves is still in the Bluebirds' hands, with Neil Warnock's side able to climb back above the Cottagers if they beat Hull City on Saturday.

Regardless of the result at the KCOM Stadium, both teams are guaranteed to be in with a shot at securing promotion to the Premier League on the final day of the season - with Fulham visiting Birmingham and Cardiff hosting Reading on Sunday, 6 May.

Aston Villa can also mathematically still catch Fulham, but they are now six points behind with just two games remaining.

Fulham survive a Sunderland scare

If the Whites had lost to Sunderland on Friday then Cardiff could have sealed promotion with victory against Hull - and a shock result at Craven Cottage looked a genuine possibility when Asoro marked his 19th birthday by opening the scoring.

The Black Cats were more than competitive in the contest and were unlucky to find themselves level towards the end of the half, with Piazon's equaliser coming 60 seconds after Ovie Ejaria appeared to be tripped in the Fulham box.

Slavisa Jokanovic's team, now 23 games unbeaten, were brilliant in dismantling Millwall in the second period last Friday, but clear chances were hard to come by despite dominating possession against Sunderland.

The pressure eventually told, however, when Newcastle loanee Mitrovic continued his fine form by scoring his 12th Fulham goal to secure victory for the hosts.

Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic told BBC Radio 5 live:

"You can see how complicated this competition is. We wanted to control the situation but didn't attack enough and take risks.

"In the second half we started to move the ball better and there was a big difference with our passing.

"We can talk about our character and our confidence.

"I am not going to watch the Cardiff game. I have different plans."

Sunderland boss Chris Coleman:

"Slav has done a big job so it was always going to be tough. I thought tonight our performance deserved something, we didn't deserve nothing.

"Their second goal was a yard offside and it's not even a hard call for the linesman to call that and we should have had a penalty in the first half.

"We need those big calls and simple calls because, when they go against you, everyone starts thinking 'Oh Sunderland always get bad calls' and we start feeling sorry for ourselves."

Sorry, we can't display this part of the article any more.

Related internet links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.