Everton dent Fulham’s European hopes with 3-1 win

Fulham’s hopes of European football next season are fading fast after they slipped to a fourth Premier League defeat in five games with a 3-1 loss to Everton at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Fulham stayed 11th in the table with 51 points from 36 games, four points behind eighth-placed Brentford, while Everton climbed one spot to 13th with 42.

Raul Jimenez gave Fulham a deserved lead in the first half with a powerful header before Vitaliy Mykolenko’s deflected shot from the edge of the box levelled the scores on the stroke of halftime.

Two goals in three minutes from Michael Keane and Beto, who profited from an error by goalkeeper Bernd Leno, turned the game in Everton’s favour and dealt their host’s European dreams a heavy blow.

“It is the story of the last three or four games,” Fulham manager Marco Silva told BBC. “Goals have come from set-pieces. We have to be willing to fight, do our job well and we didn’t. It’s about concentration and focus.

“We have to blame ourselves because it didn’t happen before but it did in the last few weeks.” Everton manager David Moyes was not impressed with his side’s start.

“It didn’t look (like Everton would win) after the first 25 minutes,” Moyes said. “I thought we were terrible on the ball but we stuck at it. We are a resilient crew and the players did a good job in the end.”

Goodison farewell

Everton will end their 133-year stay at Goodison Park with a home fixture against Southampton next Sunday.

“I have just said to the players we have the biggest game of the season next week, and we are all ready for it.” The hosts took the lead with Jimenez’s first goal in eight games as Emile Smith Rowe crossed from the left and the striker rose above Mykolenko to head past keeper Jordan Pickford.

Everton drew level on the stroke of halftime when Leno’s punch from a corner was weak and Mykolenko’s shot from the edge of the box took a wicked deflection off Andreas Pereira.

The visitors went ahead after 70 minutes when Dwight McNeil’s deep corner was headed home at the back post by Keane.

Leno’s howler then allowed Everton to score a third three minutes later.

Carlos Alcaraz led a quick counter-attack and after he slipped a pass to Beto, the striker’s first-time shot was tame but went through Leno’s hands.

Fulham had a penalty appeal waved away in the dying seconds for a Mykolenko handball. Referee Darren England was called over to the pitch-side screen but stuck with his original decision.