Emile Smith Rowe, on his Craven Cottage debut, and Alex Iwobi were both on target as Fulham beat Leicester City 2-1 to win their first home game of the new season.
The hosts bossed most of a pulsating encounter in the west London rain, deservedly opening the scoring after 18 minutes after a lovely move involving Adama Traore, whose searing run across the middle of the pitch caused panic in the Leicester back line, before the forward released Smith Rowe clean through on goal with a clever pass.
The summer signing from Arsenal kept his cool to find the far corner, but the visitors had already been a threat on the counterattack and were level seven minutes before half-time through Wout Faes’s close-range header.
Facundo Buonanotte floated a corner to the back post which the Belgian centre back nodded past Bernd Leno, only for the referee’s assistant to immediately raise his flag for offside against Jamie Vardy, lurking around the Fulham No 1.
Video Assistant Referee Jarred Gillet, however, asked the on-field official to go over to the pitch-side monitor and it did not take him long to deem the veteran Foxes striker was not interfering with Leno’s line of sight, bringing the visitors level at the break.
That goal appeared to give Fulham the impetus to take the game to Leicester in the second period and while the Foxes largely frustrated their opponents, they were always knocking on the door and re-took the lead with 20 minutes to go.
Antonee Robinson’s long ball up the line found Iwobi in space down the left flank and the winger then powered forward into the box, before blasting a shot through the advancing Mads Hermansen to hand Fulham a well-earned and deserved three points, with the visitors still looking for their first win of the new season.
