Substitute Rodrigo Muniz delivered an 82nd-minute winner as Fulham staged a dramatic comeback to secure a 2-1 victory over Newcastle United at St. James’ Park on Saturday.
The visitors overturned a first-half deficit with an impressive second-half display to claim all three points.
The result propels Fulham to ninth place in the Premier League with 36 points, closing the gap on Newcastle, who remain fifth with 41 points after an underwhelming performance that saw them hit the woodwork twice.
Newcastle started on the front foot, attacking from multiple angles but struggled to find a cutting edge.
It wasn’t until the 28th minute that Fabian Schar managed their first shot on target, only to see his effort blocked inside the box.
Sandro Tonali came close to breaking the deadlock in the 35th minute, unleashing a powerful strike that rattled the crossbar. Just two minutes later, the hosts finally broke through.
Anthony Gordon surged down the left flank before delivering a low cross that took a deflection off Fulham defender Calvin Bassey, falling perfectly for Jacob Murphy to fire home.
Fulham came out with renewed intensity after halftime, with Emile Smith Rowe forcing a save from Martin Dúbravka early on.
Raúl Jiménez had an opportunity to equalize in the 56th minute, battling past two defenders, but his shot was deflected wide.
Murphy, who had given Newcastle the lead, saw his fortunes turn in the second half. In the 61st minute, he inadvertently redirected Jiménez’s shot past his own goalkeeper, allowing Fulham to level the score.
With Newcastle struggling to regain control, Alexander Isak rattled the crossbar in the 75th minute. That miss proved costly as Fulham capitalized seven minutes later, Muniz sneaking in at the near post to guide Andreas Pereira’s free kick into the net, sealing the comeback victory.
Fulham boss Marco Silva praised his team’s spirited response after halftime.
“We needed to be more incisive, more proactive in our attacking line — what a reaction. First 25 minutes of the second half was from a team who knew really what to do to win a game here,” he told Sky Sports.
Meanwhile, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe cut a frustrated figure after his side’s lackluster display.
“I don’t think we played particularly well. We got ourselves ahead, we conceded a couple of poor goals today, never got full control of the game like we wanted to do, very disappointing overall,” he told the BBC.
