Palhinha strike earns Fulham a point at Brighton

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Brighton 1 Fulham 1

Joao Palhinha’s superb second-half strike earned a hard-fought point for Fulham against Brighton at a rain-sodden Amex Stadium.

The Portugal international curled a shot in to the top corner for his second goal of the season after Alex Iwobi had won the ball on the edge of the Brighton box before Harry Wilson teed up the midfielder’s 66th-minute strike.

Fulham had been on the back foot for much of the match before they scored but Brighton only had Evan Ferguson’s smartly-taken first-half strike to show for their dominance.

Bernd Leno made two saves to deny Simon Adingra and Carlos Baleba with Kaoru Mitoma shooting just wide before the Republic of Ireland striker opened the scoring after Pascal Gross was allowed to run unchallenged towards the Fulham box.

Lewis Dunk almost doubled the home side’s lead early in the second period when his chipped free-kick bounced off the crossbar but a triple substitution nine minutes after the restart by Marco Silva got Fulham back into the game.

Raul Jimenez, once again anonymous in attack, was replaced by Roberto Muniz, with Carlos Vinicius not in the squad.

Harry Wilson and Andreas Pereira also came on for Bobby Decordova-Reid and Harrison Reed respectively.

Almost immediately Fulham were much improved going forward and shortly after Palhinha’s equaliser Muniz went close to adding a second with a backheeled finish that was kept out by the legs of Luke Steele.

Brighton almost won the game two minutes from the end of normal time when Adam Webster’s towering header looped over Leno but Antonee Robinson headed off the line to earn his side a valuable point.

Fulham: Leno, Castagne, Bassey, Ream, Robinson, Reed (Pereira 54), Palhinha, De Cordova-Reid (Wilson 54), Iwobi (Lukic 90), Willian (Cairney 85), Jimenez (Muniz 54).
Subs not used: Rodak, Cairney, Ballo-Toure, Lukic, Tanton, De Fougerolles.