Fulham out after Sunderland fightback

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Fulham 1 Sunderland 3

Fulham missed out on a fifth-round tie at Bradford City after a howler from Marcus Bettinelli gifted Sunderland a route back into the FA Cup replay at Craven Cottage.

The Whites led at half-time thanks to a Hugo Rodallega strike, but a dreadful error from the Fulham keeper made it all square on the hour and the visitors’ increasing dominance was rewarded with goals from Ricardo Alvarez, and Jordi Gomez from the spot.

Bettinelli’s night began well enough. He reacted impressively to block a Gomez drive and then got down sharply to turn aside a low drive from Steven Fletcher.

But the Fulham stopper should easily have dealt with Patrick Van Aanholt’s cross from the left after Fulham had gone in front, but under his bar he somehow contrived to spill the ball over the goal-line.

Fulham had ended two hours of deadlock between the sides – the original tie ending 0-0 at the Stadium of Light – when Rodallega got the final touch to clip a shot in off the bar following a corner on 28 minutes.

It was the Colombian’s 10th of the season and a reward for reacting quickest after Cauley Woodrow’s initial effort had been blocked on the line.

The goal lifted the home side’s belief and soon after, Ross McCormack drilled a low shot just past the upright guarded by Vito Mannone.

With Sunderland looking powder-puff in attack, in spite of their overall superiority, hopes of a cup upset were rising at the start of the second half until that horrible clanger from Bettinelli gifted an equaliser.

Emanuele Giaccherini came close to putting the visitors in front with a curling shot moments later and it was the prelude to a prolonged spell on the front foot from Sunderland, who eventually got their noses in front on 75 minutes, when Alvarez cut in from the right to arrow home an angled drive.

Patrick Roberts and Lasse Vigen Christensen were pitched on for the closing stages, but although the pair stirred the Hammersmith End, there was no way back.

And in injury time, Gomez buried a penalty awarded for an innocuous-looking foul by Shaun Hutchinson on substitute Danny Graham.

Fulham: Bettinelli; Grimmer, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Stafylidis; Tunnicliffe, Fofana (Christensen 83); Kacaniklic (Roberts 83), McCormack; Rodallega, Woodrow.
Subs not used: Kiraly, Zverotic, Dembele, Williams, Burn.

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