Fulham manager Marco Silva was left rueing the early missed chance from Joao Palhinha as Fulham narrowly missed out on reaching the Carabao Cup Final against Liverpool.
Issa Diop cancelled out Luis Diaz’s early goal but Fulham couldn’t find a late winner leaving Marco Silva frustrated at full-time.
The Portuguese manager was speaking to the club’s official website after a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat on aggregate against the Premier League leaders.
It was always going to be a very difficult task for Fulham against the best team in the country right now.
Liverpool are on a phenomenal run and even without the likes of Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold are incredibly difficult to beat.
The Reds dominated possession for large spells and didn’t allow Fulham to pass their out from the back.
However, they got a foothold in the game early on and from their first corner of the match they executed a pre-planned set-piece routine that should have led to the opening goal.
Joao Palhinha was in space in the box and had a free volley at Caoimhin Kelleher’s goal.
Unfortunately, his shot flew over Liverpool’s bar and Silva admitted that Palhinha’s miss was one of the biggest chances of the game for Fulham.
Against the very best teams, you can’t afford to miss chances like this and Luis Diaz’s deflected strike made the hosts pay.
Silva left frustrated by Palhinha miss against Liverpool
Speaking about the match, Silva said: “We were not able to keep the possession like normally we do, to make three or four passes between us. We lost many, many balls when we were building our attack or moments for our counter-attack as well. Even so, the first big chance was for ourselves.
“Before they scored, we had a big chance with João in that corner, something that we planned with Andreas and the moves inside the box – they were really good. João should hit the target in that situation.
“It’s a completely different game probably with that possible goal. We were not ruthless, we were not clinical in that moment.”
The £20m midfielder didn’t have his best game and was probably lucky not to pick up a booking.
He tried a few too many killer passes but still put in some phenomenal tackles and escaped difficult situations well.
Palhinha may not be the most natural choice for a key chance to fall to, but Silva clearly planned for the Portuguese to be the key man for his set pieces against Liverpool.
The team need to lift their spirits for their FA Cup match against Newcastle on Saturday evening.
Defeat in that match practically ends the season for the Whites unless they drop into a relegation battle.