By Sulaimon Jamiu
Fulham re-entered the Premier League with a bang, holding title contenders Liverpool to a 2-2 draw at the Craven Cottage on Saturday.
An Aleksandar Mitrović double twice put Fulham ahead, but goals from Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah meant the home side could only take one point in the end.
Fulham coach, Marco Silva, named the same team that grabbed a 1-1 draw against Villarreal in the club’s final pre-season game, but with new recruits Bernd Leno and Shane Duffy featuring on the bench.
João Palhinha and Andreas Pereira were set for their Fulham league debuts and for the first time since joining the yeam, Manor Solomon was also an option for the boss, starting as a substitute.
For Liverpool, goalkeeper Alisson Becker returned after a stint out with injury. Salah, Luis Diaz and Roberto Firmino formed the front three, with new signing Nunez on the bench. He sat alongside Fabio Carvalho, who returned to the Cottage for the first time since securing promotion with us.
The home team made a bright start, with Mitrovic gathering the ball high up the pitch after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s attempted clearance was blocked, the front man brought the ball down excellently, but his low effort rolled wide of the far post.
It was all Fulham in the early stages, and the crowd were right behind the home boys. Antonee Robinson burst down the left side before having his cross sent out for a corner. The resulting delivery was headed clear.
Liverpool thought they had the lead 15 minutes in, when Diaz curled a right-footed shot into the far corner. Unfortunately, the flag was raised, with Andy Robertson shown to be offside earlier in the move.
Fulham took a deserved lead just past the half-hour mark when Kebano found the overlapping Tete, whose floated cross towards the back stick was superbly headed home by Mitrovic. The forward towered over Alexander-Arnold to get to the ball first.
Jürgen Klopp made a couple of changes just minutes after the break, with Nunez replacing Firmino up top and ex-Fulham man Harvey Elliott coming on for Thiago, who limped off holding his hamstring.
Upon the coming on of the new signing, he did well and lived up to expectations by scoring one goal and setting up another for Liverpool Talisman, Mo Salah.
