Sunderland v Fulham: FA Cup fourth round replay – live | FA Cup
Key events
18 mins: Kurzawa pulls out a leg to knock Diallo down, who was turning him over on the right sideline. Cynical, and he’s lucky he doesn’t go into the book.
17 mins: Tosin, Fulham’s last man, hits a clearance straight to Diallo but gets away with it, the rebound goes to him rather than allowing the Sunderland striker to run for goal. The visitors got away with one.
15 mins: Mary Waltz emails “with the greatest respect to Mr Hirst regarding Fulham’s tactics. They had an exceptional rebound from the championship. They are safe from relegation. They are too far for the Champions League. The chance to win an FA Cup trophy after promotion would be an amazing achievement. I would go for that. And they do seem to be going there. They’ve been front and center from the start and look dangerous every time they cross the halfway line. Sunderland need to hold their ground here and limit the damage.
13 mins: Diallo falls into the Fulham area and half-heartedly demands a penalty. There was little or no contact, and the referee showed no interest. The home fans aren’t pushing too hard either.
11 minutes: Ah, but they soon rise to applaud the memory of Sunderland supporter Chris Collier, a retired Parachute Regiment captain and fan forum administrator who recently passed away. A touching moment.
10 minutes: It took some air out of the Stadium of Light. The home fans roar defiantly for a few seconds, but quickly lower their energy again.
AIM! Sunderland 0-1 Fulham (Wilson 8)
Tete swings a cross from the right. Ballard heads the ball straight through the air. Vinicius gets embarrassed and puts Wilson on the penalty spot. Wilson directs a shot down the right. Patterson should swing around the post, but his hand is weak and the ball springs into the corner. Fulham in the lead!
8 minutes: A free kick for Fulham on the right. The ball is rolled to the flank for Wilson, who puts Cairney on the field. Cairney has a shot but Ballard charges it. Blocked and deleted. However, Fulham return, and…
6 minutes: Duffy beads a glorious long pass into the inside left channel for Solomon, who tries to fire from a tight angle but is forced to settle for a corner. It leads to nothing. What a deep pass, though!
5 minutes : Kurzawa, Solomon and Vinicius combine well as Fulham move the ball from the left flank. Vinicius prepares to shoot but is shut down before he can let go.
3 minutes: Clarke runs with determination on the left before passing the ball to Diallo on the other flank. Diallo descends a cul-de-sac and the momentum is gone.
2 minutes : Roberts is soon on his feet again. No idleness on the lawn. It is very cold tonight.
Fulham gets the ball rolling. The game is soon stopped as Roberts takes an accidental hit in the mush, courtesy of Kurzawa.
The teams are out! A freezing night on Wearside. Sunderland wear their red and white stripes, while Fulham sport their first-choice white. A great FA Cup atmosphere at the Stadium of Light, but also a lot of pre-match nervousness. “Although I love Marco Silva, I don’t understand why he is playing Palhinha tonight, rather than giving Lukic an introduction to English football,” writes Richard Hirst. “Palhinha is a fantastic tackler, but his favorite technique of sliding 30 yards to win the ball is great to watch, but is only a millisecond away from a yellow card or worse. We need him for the Premier League rather than the luxury of the Cup.” We’ll be leaving in a second or three.
Marco Silva – who will be watching from the stands tonight after picking up a fourth yellow card of the season at Chelsea last Friday – speaks to the Beeb. “It will be different and strange [to watch from the stand] … everything will be the same until kick-off and half time will be the same too, I will be with the players … our job is to prepare well … the returns they normally receive from the bench they will receive as always … I will be in a different place but with a better view to analyze!
Tony Mowbray speaks to the BBC and is asked about the potential for a repeat of the 1973 FA Cup final in the next round. “I don’t think we’ll be dragged into the next round, let’s deal with this one…we had an amazing game at Fulham…we asked the team to challenge each other against Premier League players…we gave them asked to express themselves and compete and that’s what they are asked to do tonight, to test their talent, their dynamism and their ambition… sometimes when we play against a top team there is fear …but we’ll try to play up front like we did at Craven Cottage and hopefully it’ll be another good game.
Why are we doing it? That’s why we submitted to it.
Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray is making a change to the starting XI sent to Craven Cottage last week. Abdoullah Ba replaces Ross Stewart, suffering from Achilles.
Fulham manager Marco Silva made two changes from that game. Shane Duffy and Luke Harris replace Issa Diop and Andreas Pereira, who sit on the bench.
The teams
Sunderland: Patterson, Hume, Batth, Ballard, Alese, Neil, Michut, Roberts, Ba, Clarke, Amad.
Replacements: Bass, O’Nien, Bennette, Pritchard, Rigg, Kelly, Ekwah, Johnson, Watson.
Fulham: Rodak, Tete, Tosin, Duffy, Kurzawa, Palhinha, Cairney, Harris, Wilson, Vinicius, Solomon.
Replacements: Leno, Robinson, Diop, Reed, Pereira, James, Decordova-Reid, Willian, Mitrovic.
Preamble
A few weekends ago it happened…
… and so we go to the Stadium of Light. The winners of that replay will host Leeds United in the fifth round, so a potential replay of the 1973 final is a possibility live, fifty years later. Can Fulham undo this narrative? We will find out tonight, even if it takes extra time and penalties. Kick-off is at 19:45 GMT. It’s on!
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