Fulham's Mitrovic makes late difference in basement clash with Huddersfield
Paul MacInnes at Craven Cottage
Sat 29 Dec 2018 12.09 EST Last modified on Sun 30 Dec 2018 14.38 EST
Aleksandar Mitrovic celebrates scoring Fulham's late winner against Huddersfield. Photograph: Michael Zemanek/BPI/REX/Shutterstock
To judge this match by the scenes at the final whistle you might have thought a cup final had just taken place. Fulham players were standing stock still in shock, half the Huddersfield team were on the floor. It may have been only three points, and in truth it was an awful match, but clearly they meant a lot.
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Aleksandar Mitrovic's injury-time winner in this relegation fixture moved Fulham to within one point of the safety zone, and the manner of victory will give Claudio Ranieri's team confidence. For Huddersfield there was no disguising that belief is running out. This was their seventh consecutive league defeat and David Wagner was visibly shellshocked in his post-match press conference.
In an unusual turn Ranieri chose to use his conference not to celebrate victory but to deliver a tough message on the primacy of team over individual. Aboubakar Kamara was the focus and the subject of a public dressing-down.
The French forward had won a late penalty for Fulham, rather dubiously after flicking the ball on to the arm of Huddersfield's Chris Löwe. But he then refused to give the ball to Mitrovic, the designated taker, and his kick was saved by Jonas Lössl. It is safe to say his manager was not happy.
He told the BBC: "I wanted to kill him," and then added: "It is not possible to explain what happened after we got the penalty – or maybe I should say it is easy when a man thinks only of himself.
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"It is not right. He didn't respect me, the club, his teammates, the crowd – he took the ball and just said: 'I want to shoot.' He didn't listen to reason.
"I don't know if that is it, if it is finished or if it will continue. Maybe I will take him away from the squad. The other players are calm because we won – but not me. It is not important whether we won or lost, it is important what you did and why."
Ranieri at least found time to acknowledge the importance, and celebrate the contribution, of Mitrovic, who played through illness to end a barren run with his eighth league goal of the season. Running on to Ryan Sessegnon's defence-splitting pass – the teenager having been set free by Tom Cairney in a move reminiscent of Fulham's promotion form of last season – he finished precisely and coolly between the legs of Lössl. Ranieri said: "Mitrovic has played with a 39-degree fever but he is a strong man."
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For Wagner, there was little to be said at all. "It's very difficult. I think it was a game where you've seen both teams are struggling at the minute in the Premier League with less clear-cut chances. We were not able to create. This was the story of the game.
"Obviously it's a low point. Not only because we've lost seven in a row but how we lost it. It's a heavy loss we've conceded today. We will need for sure a little bit longer than only 30 minutes afterwards to deal with it."
With the Christmas fixtures unrelenting, Fulham now travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal on New Year's Day while Huddersfield have yet another must-win game against Burnley.
Wagner will have to make sure his team have cleared their heads by then.