Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s 94th-minute finish completed a dramatic 3-2 victory for Manchester United over Fulham on Sunday, capping a match that swung wildly after the influential Casemiro left the pitch.<\/p>\n
Casemiro produced a commanding first-half display in his first Old Trafford appearance since announcing his exit this summer. He opened the scoring with a towering header after 19 minutes and later supplied a no-look pass that set up Matheus Cunha. Bruno Fernandes\u2019 free kick arced onto Casemiro\u2019s forehead for that opening goal, underlining the midfielder\u2019s influence in both phases.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrazil\u2019s 2002 World Cup winning defensive midfielder Gilberto Silva once described his compatriot Casemiro as \u201cThe Invisible Man.\u201d\u201d He was on show for all to see against Fulham.<\/p>\n
With 15 minutes to play Casemiro was substituted and walked off to a standing ovation with United leading 2-0. His withdrawal coincided with a vulnerable spell in the centre of the pitch. Fulham probed through that area, and United were made to pay when Harry Maguire\u2019s late lunge conceded a penalty, allowing Fulham back into the contest.<\/p>\n
Cunha had earlier taken advantage of Patrick Dorgu\u2019s absence, drifting infield from the left before arriving on the right to score 10 minutes into the second half with a powerful finish from Casemiro\u2019s pass. Cunha, promoted to the starting XI while Dorgu recovered, provided a different attacking option and ended up on the scoresheet.<\/p>\n
Substitute \u0160e\u0161ko, introduced in the 74th minute, struck the bar with his first touch before calmly nodding home the winner after more messy late moments.<\/p>\n
Player ratings highlighted strong performances from Casemiro (8.8) and Bruno Fernandes (8.6), with goalkeeper Senne Lammens noted for several important saves (8.1). Manuel Ugarte offered a brief substitute appearance (6.5). Several late subs were without ratings.<\/p>\n
Match statistics showed United had 42% possession to Fulham\u2019s 58%. Expected goals read 1.74 for United and 1.97 for Fulham. Total shots were 13 to 14, shots on target 6 each, big chances 3 to 2, passing accuracy 87% to 90% and fouls 6 to 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A stoppage-time winner made it 3-2 after Casemiro’s early influence and a chaotic finish at Trafford<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[713,1083],"tags":[317,342,939],"class_list":["post-6388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fulham","category-man-utd","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}