Samuel Chukwueze scores brace in Fulham's 5-4 defeat to Man City
Samuel Chukwueze scored twice and Alex Iwobi added another for Fulham in the Cottagers’ 4-5 loss to Manchester City in London on Tuesday night.
The nine-goal thriller was a topsy-turvy encounter that saw the Nigerian internationals outshine Erling Haaland, the Man City striker who scored a landmark goal, as the former EPL champions thought they would stroll to an easy win in the match. Their goals came on the day that Eric Chelle, Super Eagles coach, released his provisional squad for AFCON 2025, which starts later this month.
Haaland opened the floodgate of goals in 17 minutes when he lashed a shot high into the net from Jeremy Doku’s cutback, scoring his 100th EPL goal in his 111th game, and becoming the fastest player to reach the milestone by beating Alan Shearer’s 1995 record by 13 matches.
Tijjani Reinjders and Phil Foden made it three-nil to Man City on 44 minutes, before Emile Smith-Rowe ensured Fulham got one back in added time to provide some respite for the hosts at the break.
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However, further goals by Foden to complete his brace, and Jeremy Doku looked to be enough for second-placed City early in the second half, but Fulham crept back into the contest with wonderful strikes by Marco Silva’s Nigerian imports.
Iwobi scored Fulham’s second goal with a peach of a strike into the corner, and Chukwueze took centre stage with two goals in six minutes. The winger, who won player of the match in Fulham’s last match, pounced on a City mistake in defence to power a strike into the bottom corner on 72 minutes, before completing his brace with another well-struck shot for 5-4 on 78 minutes.
Both goals are Chukwueze’s first since his summer arrival from AC Milan, but he could not find a third, and Man City held on to seal all three points that moved the Cityzens to within two points of Arsenal, current league leaders.
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