Fulham 1-1 Roma
Brede Hangeland scored his second goal for Fulham tonight
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By Matt Fortune. |  |
Thursday, 22, Oct 2009 10:50
By Sam Ross.
Fulham were denied a famous victory against Italian giants Roma, thanks to an injury-time leveller from Marco Andreolli at Craven Cottage.
The cottagers were reduced to 10 men late on when Stephen Kelly tripped John Arne Riise just outside the six-yard box.
Brede Hangeland scored his second goal for Fulham in the first half but was nearly mistakenly sent off in a nervous moment for the officials that saw a new system with two additional referees behind the goals tested for the first real time.
The referee and official behind Fulham's goal initially sent off Hangeland, before Kelly admitted to the offence and eventually left the field after feeling aggrieved for receiving such heavy punishment.
Fulham began the game brightly and in the second minute Bjorn Helge Riise, playing against older brother John Arne, fizzed in a cross which Philippe Mexes had to touch behind. From the resulting corner Jonathan Greening had a low shot that was well saved by Roma keeper Alexander Doni.
The following 20 minutes were fairly lacklustre with Fulham dominating most of the possession in midfield until the 23rd minute, when Hangeland towered above the Roma defence to head Fulham ahead.
Mark Schwarzer was eventually called into action just after the half-hour mark when he parried Riise's powerful volley away for a corner.
After the restart Roma introduced David Pizarro and Simone Perrotta in an attempt to inject some pace and energy into Roma's game while Jon Pantsil replaced Paul Konchesky for the home side.
Roma were more threatening in the second half and had a goal disallowed when Daniele de Rossi was rightly adjudged offside after he flicked the ball in.
Fulham had chances to go further in front after some inventive link-up play between Bobby Zamora and Diomansy Kamara created good chances.
Zamora drove down the right and slipped the ball passed keeper Doni towards Kamara but Roma defender Mexes was there to turn the ball away for a corner.
Another attack involving the two frontmen saw Zamora send Kamara through on goal, only for Doni to come rushing off his line to deny Fulham from taking a 2-0 lead.
The 76th minute saw the decision that changed the game when Stephen Kelly clipped Riise inside the penalty area and was adjudged to be the last man so was given his marching orders after some confusion.
Jeremy Menez stepped up to take the penalty but Mark Schwarzer produced a great diving save down to his right to deny the Italians an equaliser and seconds later held on to a powerful driven effort from Jeremy Menez.
The last couple of minutes were nervous ones for Fulham and the heart-breaking equaliser came in injury time when the ball fell to Andreolli - who blasted it into the back of the net via a deflection from Pantsil on the goal line.
As a result of the draw Fulham now drop to second in Group E, one point behind leaders FC Basel.