Fulham’s surprise opener has been virgil van dijk’s error in the caraboa cup semi-final. When tussling with fulham’s raul jimenez, the veteran dutch centre-back struggled to cope with a bouncing ball. Pereira is able to sneak in behind and play a ball to former chelsea and arsenal forward willian.
To push fulham forward, he takes a fine turn before slotting the ball into van dijk’s legs. Jamie redknapp told sky sports at halftime: ‘uncharacteristically, it’s virgil van dyk who makes the error,’ jamie redknapp said. I’ve always said, ‘if you’re a centre-back and the ball comes into your area and you’re uncertain, you should direct the ball towards the touch line, and he sort of heads it in field.’ Pereira then pounces and reverses it back to willian, who does so well. He’s afraid of tackling, loses his balance, but willian does it well: he almost hurdles him, manages to hold his feet there, jumps over him, and then slides it through virgil van dyk’s legs. It’s a brilliant piece of theatre. It was and is nothing more than what they deserved.
They’ve been fantastic,’ he said. A sky sports analyst said during the match: ‘there’s still a lot of work for fulham to do.’ Willian is the only one man you want on the end of the day. ‘some nice touches, but van dijk misjudges it and picks his pocket.’ The idea was to sit deep and strike them if they had a chance, and they’ve done so. It’s a big goal, and it gives them something to hold on to.’
