Fulham took the honours at Craven Cottage today with a 2-1 win after trailing at half time.
The win, a rarity in fixtures between these two teams, sets Fulham up nicely for the trip to Germany, to play Wolfsburg on Thursday.
For the fixture Roy Hodgson made only one change to the eleven that beat Wolfsburg on Thursday evening with David Elm coming in for Bobby Zamora who had an Achilles injury.
The opening exchanges were dull to say the least with things only livened up by the sight of Paul Scharner, a supposed Fulham target, receiving a yellow card for pulling back Elm.
Elm, enjoying a rare start and preferred to Erik Nevland and Stefano Okaka, had a low shot from eighteen yards out, as the action finally got going, but Chris Kirkland made a comfortable save.
The visitors, pushing forward, saw Scharner head a corner over at the near post before Mark Schwarzer made a mistake and gifted Scharner with an opportunity when he scooped a cross straight to him, thankfully Brede Hangeland was on hand to clear off the line. From the clearance Maynor Figueroa tried a spectacular forty yard effort but Schwarzer redeemed himself for his earlier error by tipping it over the bar.
Respite for Fulham was brief though and when Mario Melchiot delivered a deep cross Marceo Moreno headed it back for Jason Scotland to beat Schwarzer at his near post with thirty-four minutes gone. Just before half time Kirkland had to push away a deflected Damien Duff cross but it hadn`t been a good first half for Fulham.
At half time (Sir) Roy Hodgson took off Elm and introduced Okaka and the move took only three minutes to pay dividends. Zoltan Gera collected the ball and fired it in low for Okaka to score at the near post. Eleven minutes later the lead was ours when we netted a second. A corner from Duff was met by the head of Brede Hangleand who watched as Kirkland could only help it into the net.
The comeback was complete and Fulham could have made the score line more emphatic in stoppage time when appeals for a foul on Clint Dempsey by Titus Bramble were turned down by Mark Clattenburg.
Next stop Germany!
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