Fulham 4-5 Manchester City: Erling Braut Haaland hits 100th Premier League goal as City edge Cottagers in nine-goal thriller | OneFootball

Manchester City just about did enough to come away with all three points in their Premier League encounter against Fulham.

Both teams emerged victorious over the weekend and headed into Tuesday’s clash in high spirits.

One shy of a century of Premier League goals, Erling Braut Haaland should have given City the lead five minutes in when he struck the base of the post after being played through by Phil Foden.

Now approaching 300 minutes of action without a club goal, Haaland was experiencing his longest goal drought of the campaign.

However, the Norwegian got on the end of a Jeremy Doku cross to fire his ahead in the 17th minute and consequently broke Alan Shearer’s record for the fewest number of games needed to score 100 goals in the English top flight.

Fulham had been on the back foot for the opening quarter of the game, although they so nearly drew level in the 23rd minute, but for an excellent save from Gianluigi Donnarumma to deny Emile Smith Rowe.

Smith Rowe had another crack at the City goal just past the half-hour mark, although the midfielder posed little threat to Donnarumma this time around, having gotten his effort away off-balance.

Just as Fulham started to grow into the contest, the hosts were dealt a huge blow eight minutes shy of the interval.

Haaland turned provider this time around for Tijjani Reijnders to grab his first goal since scoring on the opening weekend against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Grabbing a second goal put City firmly in the driving seat, but things got better for the visitors in the penultimate minute of the half as Foden sent a long-range effort past Bernd Leno for his third goal in two matches.

Going into the interval down by three would have left Fulham with a mountain to climb, and the Cottagers were keen to pull one back before the whistle.

Unsurprisingly, Fulham’s route back into the game was provided by their most threatening player of the half, Smith Rowe, who guided a lovely header beyond a helpless Donnarumma.

Buoyed by their late first-half goal, Fulham sent on Samuel Chukwueze at halftime, signalling their intention to take the game to their opponents.

Any hopes of a Fulham comeback were effectively put to the sword in the early exchanges of the second period when Foden doubled his tally with a composed finish as Haaland inadvertently turned provider.

Fulham’s woes went from bad to worse moments later via a stroke of ill luck with Doku’s effort deflecting off Sander Berge to make it 5-1.

Nonetheless, the West Londoners remained unperturbed in their attacking intent and pulled one back in the 57th minute through Alex Iwobi’s long-range low drive.

Having now reduced the deficit back to three, Fulham continued to go at City, but it was the visitors who came closest to grabbing the next goal on the 70th-minute mark.

Getting on the end of Savinho’s cross, Haaland was denied by the woodwork for the second time on the day.

Chukwueze had failed to make an impact since coming on as a second-half substitute before the Nigerian made it 5-3 with 18 minutes left to play.

With Craven Cottage now pumped, Chukwueze got the Fulham supporters on the edge of their seats by grabbing another goal to reduce the deficit to one heading into the final 10 minutes.

Fulham remained hopeful of grabbing an equaliser in the closing stages of the contest, and were inches away from doing the seemingly impossible in second-half stoppage time.

Josh King saw his goal-bound effort cleared off the line by Josko Gvardiol.

Joining Arsenal, City are only the second visiting team to win at Craven Cottage this term, and Pep Guardiola’s men are now just three points shy of the top of the Premier League table.