Fulham 1 Cardiff 2 (agg 3-2): Fulham given scare but through to Championship play-off final to face Brentford
FULHAM advanced to next week’s Championship play-off final despite a 2-1 home loss to Cardiff City after edging past their opponents 3-2 on aggregate.
They will face local rivals Brentford, who beat Swansea City by the same aggregate score after Wednesday’s 3-1 victory, in an all south-west London final at Wembley next week.
In a furious start, Cardiff, who had lost the first leg 2-0, stunned the hosts after eight minutes with centre back Curtis Nelson’s header.
But Fulham struck back 24 seconds after the restart, snatching an equaliser through Neeskens Kebano to restore their two-goal advantage in the tie.
After conceding possession to Fulham for the rest of the first half, substitute Lee Tomlin put Cardiff back in front two minutes after the restart to set up a tense second half.
Cardiff keeper Alex Smithies kept his team in the game on several occasions with a string of superb saves, including tipping an Aboubakar Kamara shot onto the post in the 68th minute.
But despite late Cardiff pressure for a goal that would have sent the game into extra time, Fulham hung on to earn the chance to return to the Premier League after one season in the second tier.
Captain Tom Cairney was relieved to get over the line and back to Fulham’s second Sky Bet Championship play-off final in three years.
He told Sky Sports: “It wasn’t pretty at all. It was the worst start you can think of.
“These 2-0 leads are a bit weird in your head. It feels comfortable but is not at the same time.
“I think we let ourselves down a little bit by not playing our normal game, and we invited pressure.
“But, look, we showed a different side to us at times as well in the second half especially.
“When our backs were against the wall, we dug in deep and we got over the line.”
And Fulham boss Scott Parker added: “The way the game panned out tonight was not how we expected.
“We realised the task ahead of us and a wounded animal who came here with nothing to lose put us under an incredible amount of pressure at times.
“There is no denying we didn’t deal with that well enough and struggled at times.
“There is a psychological element as a game goes on, with a final at stake, and you see a bit of nervousness in us.”
“We are disappointed in our performance tonight even though we got the job done.
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“We showed a different side to us and had to face up to a relentless onslaught at times.
“We move on and dust ourselves down. We have got to the final and it is up for grabs.
“Tuesday is going to be a totally different game. We need to stay bright and positive.”