Fulham earned a 2-1 home win against Tottenham Hotspur.
It was yet another bad day in the office for Tottenham and their fans, as Spurs lost 2-1 to Fulham at Craven Cottage. The match was almost put to bed by Fulham in the first half, after they scored 2 goals inside 35 minutes. However, Richarlison pulled one back in the second half to give the team some hope, although it wasn’t eventually enough.
Interim boss, after the match, was left fuming, especially after a decision that he felt was ‘ridiculous.’ In the 7th minute that led to Harry Wilson’s opener, Raul Jimenez appeared to seemingly push Radu Dragusin, eventually winning a header that led to a goal seconds later. Although it was checked by VAR, the goal stood after it was deemed that the threshold for a foul was not met. Tudor and his men expressed angst right after the goal stood, and the Croat almost carried the same energy post-match.
Raul Jimenez ‘was thinking of how to cheat’ according to Igor Tudor
Igor Tudor lashed into the officiating and especially Fulham’s Raul Jimenez, whom he labeled a cheater. His anger also stemmed from the fact that Tottenham were on the receiving end of a similar decision last week. Randal Kolo Muani thought he had leveled for Tottenham, making it 2-2 against Arsenal, only for his goal to be chalked off after it was deemed that he had pushed Gabriel in the lead-up to the goal. Spurs fans felt that Jimenez’s push on Dragusin was much harder than what Gabriel had received a week earlier.
Here is what Tudor had to say about the same:
“Sometimes they don’t understand it’s enough, even a small contact, it gives you an advantage to score the goal. We need to cancel this.
“It’s ridiculous not to give the foul because the consequence is too big. It’s not a small foul in the middle of the pitch. It’s a goal after. There is a logic in that.
“The referee’s beautiful thing [is] to keep playing here. Let’s play strong duels. It’s fantastic. I like it. But there is a logic. If the goal is because he takes advantage, not thinking about football, he was not thinking about the ball. He (Jimenez) was thinking of how to cheat.
“So he cheated, the player was pushing, and they scored the goal. So it’s a logic. It’s cheating, and then there’s the foul. It’s not the thing of duels, and that here football is more tough, and we like the duels. There’s nothing with that. So there was no logic in this decision. Logic is above everything. After come other things.”
Tottenham will now host Crystal Palace in a midweek fixture. The Eagles, like Spurs are coming off a 2-1 defeat, against Manchester United.