Rise of a Football God

After Fulham's crunch encounter against Newcastle United in St. James' Park, their next game in the premier league was in 14 days, a home encounter against Nottingham Forest in Craven Cottage.

But before then, Fulham had another game, an FA Cup game.

Back in 9th January, Fulham took on Watford in the 3rd round of the English FA Cup, whooping the visitors 5-1 and sending them home out of the competition.

And now, they were about to continue their FA Cup title bid.
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Having lost in their EFL Cup title defense already and now trailing behind Liverpool in the title race, Fulham were determined to go all the way in the FA Cup, creating another history in their club and winning the trophy.

This was why immediately after the draw against Newcastle United in away ground, the Fulham players went hard in training again, giving their all in preparations for their next clash.

They were determined to return back to winning ways.

(FA Cup 4th round:)

(Portsmouth – Fulham)

(Date: 10th February, 2025)

On a cold evening in the Portsmouth suburb of Milton, the home supporters of Portsmouth FC welcomed players from the London side of England for a crunch FA Cup game in their stadium.

For this game, Fulham were the overwhelming favorites but Coach Marco Silva did not take any unnecessary risk as he started with a strong lineup still.

Despite Sam's incredible performance from the bench in the Newcastle United game, Coach Marco Silva was able to resist the temptation of starting his superstar player from the get-go.

Yes, Sam was fit now, but the coach still wanted to be careful with him, easing him back to full fitness.

This coach decided to lean on his experience than on his sentimentality this time. In the world of football, there are multiple examples of superstar players succumbing back to injury after being rushed back into games by their coaches.

This was the reason why Coach Marco Silva took it slow with Sam.

In Sam's absence, Fulham started in their regular 4-2-3-1 formation. Bernd Leno naturally started in between the posts and the 4-man defense covering him was the same, the only exception being Calvin Bassey who was replaced by Tete.

Coach Marco Silva decided to rest the Nigerian International for this game.

In midfield, Lukic and Berge started while up front, Harry Wilson, Andreas Pereira, Adama Traore, and Muniz started as the striker.

Prominent names like Alex Iwobi and Emile Smith Rowe were rested for this game but still, Fulham soon proved that this was enough to cause havoc.

For Portsmouth, starting in a similar 4-2-3-1 formation, Bishop started in attack while the 3-man attack behind him comprised of Silvera, Lane, and Ritchie.

Sitting in midfield was the midfield duo of Dozzel and Moxon. The 4-man defense comprised Ogilvie, Towler, Pack, and Devlin while their starting goalkeeper was Schmid, their no. 1.

It was Portsmouth's strongest starting XI but it didn't matter much before the face of a rampant Fulham side.

FWEEEE!

As soon as the referee's whistle sounded to start this game, Fulham pressed, determined to teach the championship side a footballing lesson.

During the first few minutes of this game, Portsmouth tried their best to hold their nerves, playing compactly like a team as they defended and attacked together but then, a moment of individual brilliance opened up this game.

Andreas Pereira started it from attacking midfield, spraying a neat pass to Muniz, the Fulham striker who showed his impressive strength, holding up to the ball long enough for Pereira to arrive as the striker set up the attacking midfielder.

Before any of the defenders could stop him, Pereira's right leg already launched like a missile, sending the ball on a straight collision course towards goal.

Bam!

Hitting the crossbar, the ball rattled into the net.

"GOALLLL…!" The away stands erupted in ecstasy.

Andreas Pereira celebrated, charging towards the corner flag as he kissed the Fulham jersey excitedly.

In the 21st minute, he gave Fulham the lead 0-1.

8 minutes later, in the 29th minute, it was Andreas Pereira again and this time, he threaded a defense-splitting pass to Harry Wilson in the left who quickly beat his man before curling a shot into the bottom left corner, beating the Portsmouth goalkeeper at his near post.

In 30 minutes, Portsmouth was already being torn apart.

After that, Fulham seemed to reduce their intensity, giving the Portsmouth-based club a moment of respite to string together passes and create an attack.

Portsmouth grew into the game, soon proving dangerous as they threatened but all they did was knock. The Fulham defense never gave them an opportunity to open the door, keeping it firmly locked and out of reach.

Portsmouth's inability to score soon proved costly as Andreas Pereira completed a classic first half performance with another goal.

This time, he was in the right place at the right time to tap in the ball from an Adama Traore cross across the face of goal after a crazy solo run.

In the 43rd minute of this game, Pereira got his brace.

The first half ended 0-3 to Fulham.

In the second half, Coach Marco Silva finally pulled the plug, making even more changes in his team as he gave a few fringe players opportunities to play.

Despite Fulham's fringe players being introduced, the game remained tight as Portsmouth stayed incapable of scoring.

And then in the 75th minute, Sam was introduced again to another round of applause from the away stands.

This game, since Fulham was already winning so comfortably, Sam's role as instructed by his coach was different.

With Sam entering the pitch, Fulham changed to a 4-3-3 formation in attack as Sam was tasked to play as a central midfielder.

And today, Sam showed his versatile talent, pulling the strings from midfield like a prime Xavi Hernandez as he showed another aspect of his game.

Sam failed to get a goal or an assist as the game remained 0-3 but his domination was evident with his 100% pass accuracy, 3 goal-scoring opportunities created, and having won 100% of his duels.

It was another vintage performance from Sam.

And just like that, Fulham cruised to the 5th round of the FA Cup with Andreas Pereira winning the man of the match award.

…

A few days after Fulham's FA Cup game, another premier league result came out that attracted attentions around Fulham FC.

This result was especially important to them because it was related to their biggest rivals this season, Liverpool FC.

After a long time of being suspended, Everton and Liverpool finally played their suspended premier league game.