Fulham came from behind to beat Middlesbrough 3–1 at Craven Cottage today and book their place in the FA Cup fourth round, turning a shaky first half into a convincing second-half surge sparked by Harry Wilson’s brilliance and finished off by Emile Smith Rowe and Kevin Santos Lopes de Macedo.
The afternoon began with a warning for the Premier League side. Middlesbrough, flying high in the Championship, looked comfortable in possession and almost struck early when Morgan Whittaker found Sam Silvera, whose first-time cross was turned goalwards by Tommy Conway – only for Fulham goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte to stick out a leg and keep the ball out. Fulham were sluggish and disjointed, and Boro’s energy was rewarded on 30 minutes when Silvera combined neatly with Aidan Morris, rode a challenge down the left and cut the ball back for Hayden Hackney to place a composed finish beyond Lecomte.
Fulham’s best opening of a bleak first half came late on, and even that needed rescue work from a Middlesbrough defender. Jorge Cuenca met a corner with a firm effort that looked destined to creep in until Luke Ayling cleared off the line, preserving the visitors’ lead at the interval and leaving the home crowd restless.
The match swung sharply after the break. Fulham, with Marco Silva watching from the stands as he served a touchline ban, made their intentions clear by introducing Wilson, Raúl Jiménez and Tom Cairney soon after half-time. The impact was immediate: Fulham moved the ball quicker, pressed higher and began to pin Boro deeper. On the hour, Wilson provided the moment of quality the game had lacked. Given far too much space on the edge of the area after collecting a loose cross, he shifted the ball onto his left foot and bent a superb strike into the bottom corner to level the tie.
Middlesbrough almost responded straight away. Conway got a sight of goal inside the box and clipped the crossbar, a huge let-off that proved pivotal as Fulham’s confidence surged. Wilson continued to drive the tempo, slicing passes through the lines and forcing Middlesbrough’s back line to turn. Kevin went close with a curling effort after being slipped in, and Wilson nearly repeated his equaliser only to be denied by the Boro goalkeeper, who also repelled the follow-up from Antonee Robinson.
Fulham’s second arrived with 13 minutes left and again Wilson was central. Smith Rowe carried the ball at Middlesbrough’s defence, combined with Wilson and then darted into space to collect Cairney’s return pass before firing decisively past the goalkeeper to put Fulham ahead. Middlesbrough had a chance to drag themselves back into it almost immediately, but Whittaker skewed wide when he should have tested Lecomte. That miss left the door open for Fulham to finish the job, and they did so in stoppage time when Wilson’s cross was turned in by Kevin Santos Lopes de Macedo to seal a 3–1 win.
After the match, Silva admitted the tie had been a mental test as much as a football one, pointing to the challenge of dropping from intense Premier League fixtures into a cup tie against an in-form Championship opponent. He felt Fulham’s second-half level matched what was required, and stressed that his team couldn’t afford to treat progression as an entitlement. Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg struck a disappointed but measured note, saying he felt the game was there for his side to take for long periods and praising the way they played for much of the contest, while lamenting how quickly the match turned once Fulham found momentum and quality off the bench.
For Fulham, it was another reminder of their depth and their ability to change a game with substitutions. For Middlesbrough, it was a painful exit after a first half that suggested an upset was possible — until Wilson and Fulham’s second-half surge flipped the story.
