Fulham 2-2 Bournemouth: Cottagers come from behind twice to salvage draw
By Tom Gott
Fulham were made to come from behind twice in order to secure a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Saturday.
It was the dream start for Bournemouth as they took the lead inside just two minutes.
Some excellent play down the left led to some link-up play between Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke, with the latter eventually guiding the ball into the back of the net just 64 seconds after the opening whistle.
The goal sparked Fulham into life and the hosts dominated possession for a while after that. An equaliser felt likely and it came 22 minutes in as Issa Diop leapt highest to head home a corner from Andreas Pereira.
Just seven minutes later, however, and Bournemouth were back ahead.
Solanke turned creator this time as he teed up Jefferson Lerma who, with Bournemouth's second shot of the day, found the back of the net to restore the advantage for the Cherries, who were rocking around 27% possession at this point.
Before the interval, Bournemouth nearly added a third but met a superb double save from Bernd Leno, who denied Adam Smith from two yards to keep the score at 2-1 heading into the break.
A better start to the second half from Fulham saw the Cottagers awarded a penalty five minutes in after Aleksandar Mitrovic was felled in the box by Lerma, and up stepped the Serb to crash the ball into the back of the net and tie things up once again.
Leno had to be alert to stop Solanke from grabbing a second in response as the game developed a real end-to-end feel, bringing decent shots on goal and some half-appeals for a penalty from Fulham, who were left looking to the heavens as Smith got away with a clumsy challenge on Bobby De Cordova-Reid.
Fulham continued to dominate possession but were sloppy in front of goal - 19 shots produced just four on target - with Bournemouth managing more accurate efforts despite boasting around 30% of the ball.
We headed into five minutes of injury time not knowing which way this game would go, and Fulham nearly snatched the win as Mitrovic dragged a shot wide from the edge of the box with what was nearly the final kick of the game.
Ultimately, these two sides couldn't be separated and both had to settle for a point.