Match Report: Birmingham City 0-2 Fulham
Blues exit the Carabao Cup at the hands of Premier League Fulham as Chris Davies suffers defeat for the first time.
Two goals in the first 15 minutes was enough for Premier League Fulham to knock Birmingham City out of the Carabao Cup and give Chris Davies his first taste of defeat as a manager.
Raul Jimenez opened the scoring from the penalty spot before Jay Stansfield escaped in behind to seal the victory early doors – an inevitability.
It wasn’t what a positive Blues performance right from kick-off deserved but for all the dominance of possession and territory, a goal remained elusive.
Davies made the decision to full throttle for the game, making just two changes from the side that beat Leyton Orient at the weekend. Ryan Allsop replaced Bailey Peacock-Farrell in net while the cuptied Luke Harris was replaced by Willum Willumson.
Blues started on the front foot and immediately made good headway down both flanks. Alfie May’s slice high and wide of the near post was the best we had to show for it.
Fulham’s first real foray forward ended with a set-piece and penalty. The corner was taken short and set up for Tom Cairney to strike from the edge of the area. Alex Cochrane charged out to block and the ball rebounded against an arm slightly away from his body. Decision made. Jimenez was calm and collected as he made it 1-0.
Blues continued where they left off before the goal and Christoph Klarer headed on target from a set-piece. Then long ball forward targeted the inside run of Jay Stansfield who beat the offside trap and wasn’t followed. He settled himself and confidently finished.
Stansfield could have added another a couple of minutes later when he read May’s pass and tried to lob Allsop from halfway. Blues responded well with Marc Leonard’s free-kick tipped over and Paik Seung-Ho blazing over.
Blues came close twice as the half continued. First, a gorgeous cross from Paik found the run of Keshi Anderson whose header beat Steven Benda but was cleared off the line by Timothy Castagne. Krystian Bielik nearly put past Allsop after a poor back header from Cochrane before Willumson wrapped a free-kick against the bar.
Ethan Laird was back on the attack early in the second and skewed wide before Harry Wilson blazed over. Blues had a lot of territory in the second half but the visitors defended their box excellently with Blues seeing a couple of efforts blocked and Benda saving from a vicious strike from Cochrane.
Blues had a real go for the final ten. Willumson stole the ball on the edge of the box but he and Roberts couldn’t make the most of it. Leonard then had two strikes from the edge of the box before Wilson struck aimlessly at the other end.
Tyler Roberts couldn’t get enough power on his strike. Benda produced an excellent stop to deny Jorge Cuenca an own goal. Willumson and Ayuma Yokoyama linked up towards the end but the former blazed over from the edge of the area.
A positive display but one that wasn’t enough to beat Premier League opposition.
Lineups
Blues: Allsop; Laird (Sampsted 73) Klarer Bielik Cochrane; Paik (Jutkiewicz 83) Leonard Thor; Anderson (Miyoshi 61) May (Roberts 61) Hansson (Yokoyama 61). Unused: BPF; Davies Khela Hall.
Fulham: Benda; Castagne Andersen Cuenca Sessegnon; Berge (King 65) Reed (ESE 87); Wilson (Traore 87) Cairney (Lukic 78) Stansfield (Iwobi 78); Jimenez. Unused: Leno Tete Bassey Muniz.
Tactics
In truth, this wasn’t an entirely complicated game.
It was 4-2-3-1 for both sides. The attacking midfielder stepped up to support the striker and both sides almost went man for man, both midfields stepping on to close the deeper lying players. The only spare man was often the full-back on the other flank, something Blues used well with long switches.
The primary difference felt like Fulham were happier for the ball to be released out wide, backing themselves to be fine inside, whereas Blues allowed themselves to be open at times by trying to read the ball wide. On the day, it was Blues punished for not reading the run.
Players
The spine looked good. Allsop was confident dealing with his area and his kicking was largely excellent, particularly the diags to his wide men. Bielik was similarly strong in front, dominating in his battles and keeping the ball well. Leonard just oozes class and was excellent again here, never looking fazed despite the quality of his opposition. And though he was quiet, May led the line brilliantly and never stopped for an hour.
Laird is a talking point. Yes, his final ball needs work and yes, he probably could have done more to prevent the second. But his speed and power and, for the most part, touch makes him a fantastic outball. He’s growing himself after a couple of difficult years and getting stronger. His involvement in our attacking play is so important to us getting forward. He looked more comfortable physically than others in our XI against players that will play Premier League football this year, which shouldn’t be overlooked.
For Fulham, they’re obviously quality. Cuenca and Andersen were fantastic. Dominant in almost everything they did with the former’s passing range evident for the goal. Stansfield got his goal.
Conclusions
It’s hard to draw too conclusions from cup games.
On the one hand, we were dominant for the most part, which is genuinely impressive. And some of our players looked comfortable physically against opponents who have to be physically adept to perform at the top level.
On the other, we were 2-0 in 15 minutes having switched off in different scenarios and naturally ended up having play while a team that is undoubtedly a little rusty as a unit given their lack of game time together sat in and waited for their moments.
I think we have to take the positives from the game. I’ve outlined various players above and the whole group deserve credit.
Wigan are next and in theory, it’s a game we should win. The main concern is that it’s another team turning up to St.Andrews desperate to get a result against the division’s biggest hitter while also having had a full week to prepare for the game. We have to be weary.
It could be a game in which our subs play an important role. With Harris back, it’s a bench that could easily includes Dykes, Willumson, Miyoshi and Yokoyama which is fun.
A first defeat but positives to take and if we get a result on Saturday, we can dine on an unbeaten start to the league campaign until we host Wrexham on Monday 16th September, assuming the international call ups ensure our game with Exeter City is cancelled.