Tottenham halts Fulham charge
Print Edition
FULHAM squandered an opportunity to escape the English Premier League relegation zone yesterday after going down 1-3 at London rival Tottenham Hotspur.
Felix Magath’s improving side had won its two previous games and the Cottagers reacted impressively after falling behind to a close-range Paulinho strike in the 35th minute from a Christian Eriksen cross, with Steve Sidwell equalizing almost immediately.
However, second-half goals from Harry Kane and Younes Kaboul secured victory for Tim Sherwood’s Spurs, with Sidwell seeing a late penalty saved by Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris following Eriksen’s handball in the area.
“I was a little bit nervous but luckily Hugo made the save,” said Eriksen. “We have to thank him for what he did in this win today, and all season.”
Defeat left Fulham two points from safety, ahead of a home game against Hull City next weekend.
“If we had got any points here, it would have been an extra point for us,” said Fulham manager Magath.
“We have to win our home games and I think we can manage it.”
Spurs closed to within four points of the UEFA Champions League places, although they have played a game more than both fourth-place Arsenal, which has 67 points and fifth-place Everton (66).
With leader Liverpool not in action until today, when it visits Norwich City, Chelsea can provisionally take over at the top of the table if it wins at home to bottom club Sunderland in yesterday’s late game.
Fulham, on 30 points, slipped one place to 19th after Cardiff City moved above it on goal difference by drawing 1-1 at home to Stoke City.
Marko Arnautovic gave Stoke the lead from the penalty spot in first-half injury time after Kim Bo-kyung was contentiously adjudged to have tripped Peter Odemwingie.
Penalty of his own
However, Peter Whittingham equalized with a penalty of his own after Steven Nzonzi tripped Fraizer Campbell, and Cardiff might even have won, only for a Juan Cala effort to be ruled out for offside.
Elsewhere, an ice-cool stoppage-time penalty by Wilfried Bony gave Swansea City a 2-1 victory at Newcastle United that took the Welsh club six points clear of the relegation zone.
Bony had earlier scored with a header to cancel out Shola Ameobi’s 23rd-minute opener for the home side.
Aston Villa spurned a chance to put clear daylight between itself and the bottom three after being held to a 0-0 draw at home to Southampton that left Paul Lambert’s side five points above the drop zone.
In the day’s other fixture, a 59th-minute Mile Jedinak penalty saw Crystal Palace win 1-0 at West Ham United, completing a sequence of five straight top-flight wins for the first time since December 1992.
In Germany, Bayern Munich ground out a hard-fought 2-0 victory over bottom side Eintracht Braunschweig yesterday to end the champion’s three-game winless streak in the Bundesliga.
Claudio Pizarro broke the deadlock in the 79th minute, when Mario Goetze sent the Peruvian through, and Mario Mandzukic secured the win with three minutes remaining as the home side pushed for an equalizer.
Bayern coach Pep Guardiola had started his strongest available side to fine tune for Wednesdays’ Champions League semifinal first leg at Real Madrid.
Second-place Borussia Dortmund defeated visiting Mainz 4-2, and SC Freiburg took a giant step in its fight against relegation by beating Borussia Moenchengladbach by the same score.
Werder Bremen came from behind to beat Hoffenheim 3-1 and Augsburg drew 0-0 with Hertha Berlin.
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