Super Eagles trio Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey and Samuel Chukwueze will not win the English FA Cup this season after Fulham were knocked out of the competition, Soccernet.ng reports.
The Premier League side suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat to Championship club Southampton at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon. The result ended Fulham’s run in this season’s tournament at the Round of 16 stage.
Iwobi has already won the FA Cup once in his career, lifting the trophy with Arsenal in 2017. However, Super Eagles teammates Bassey and Chukwueze must now wait at least another season for their first success in England’s famous cup competition.
The defeat will also disappoint Fulham supporters. The London club have never won the FA Cup in their history and have not reached the final since 1975, when they finished as runners-up.
Last season the Cottagers made it to the quarter-finals before losing 3-0 to Crystal Palace, but this year their campaign ended earlier after the narrow loss to Southampton.
Controversial decisions and late penalty sink Fulham
Fulham’s exit came after a tense and controversial match that featured several disputed decisions from referee Jarred Gillett.
The home side thought they had taken the lead in the first half after a strange moment involving Southampton goalkeeper Daniel Peretz. The keeper rushed to take a quick goal-kick, but the ball hit Ryan Manning and rolled to Rodrigo Muniz, who finished into the net.
However, Gillett had already blown his whistle, believing the ball was still moving when the goal-kick was taken. Replays later suggested the ball had actually stopped, but because the whistle had gone early, VAR could not review the incident.
Another confusing moment happened in the second half when play was stopped for a foul just as Southampton striker Cyle Larin ran through on goal. Replays showed he was onside and had a clear chance before the whistle halted the attack.
Southampton kept pushing and eventually found their breakthrough late in the match. Midfielder Finn Azaz had earlier struck the crossbar before winning a penalty after going down in the box under pressure from Joachim Andersen.
Striker Ross Stewart stepped up and calmly converted the spot-kick in stoppage time to send Southampton into the quarter-finals.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Fulham manager Marco Silva admitted it had been a very frustrating day for his team.
“Completely disappointing result and afternoon for us, for the football club and for the fans mainly. [They] are going to be the ones that are going to suffer because the expectations, as always, were very high.
“Basically, a really, really bad day for us that has to make us look inside of ourselves and move on.”
With their FA Cup journey now over, Fulham will turn their focus back to the Premier League, where they currently sit 10th in the table with nine matches left to play this season.
