German coach Tonda Eckert pulled off a surprise with Southampton FC. The second division team won at Premier League club Fulham FC with a late knockout.
Despite their recent home defeat to West Ham United (0-1), Fulham coach Marco Silva decided to rest a number of players against the second division club. Among others, keeper Bernd Leno took a seat on the bench, with Lecomte between the posts as usual in the FA Cup. In front of him was a completely new back four, with a total of nine changes for the Londoners.
The newly assembled team had problems from the start against Tonda Eckert’s side, who had traveled to the game on the back of a nine-game unbeaten run. The Saints, led by German Caspar Jander, were more dangerous in front of goal in the first half, but almost scored an own goal. Bayern loanee Peretz wanted to take a quick goal kick and shot at the back of his teammate Manning, from where the ball flew into the goal. Luckily for the keeper, the referee had blown his whistle shortly before – apparently because the ball was still in motion or possibly because not all players had left the penalty area yet. Either way, this curious own goal did not count (19th minute).
After the restart, there were chances at both ends, but the decisive moments at Craven Cottage only came in the closing minutes. First, Peretz saved a shot from left-back Sessegnon, then shortly afterwards Southampton’s Azaz was brought down by Andersen in the penalty area. Substitute Stewart took charge and converted the resulting penalty to make it 1-0 (90+1). After six minutes of added time, the Saints crossed the finish line, handing Fulham their second consecutive 0-1 home defeat.
Eckert missed the scene involving Peretz
“It’s not so easy when you play a good first half and feel like you should be leading at the break, but you’re not,” Eckert said after the match. Regarding his team’s disallowed own goal, the 33-year-old said, “I didn’t see that moment. Overall, we deserved to advance to the next round based on our performance over the 90 minutes.”
There was a story behind Stewart taking the penalty. As Eckert revealed, Southampton’s first two penalty takers were no longer on the pitch, so Stewart had to take responsibility—and he did so successfully.