Kebano opens season account as Fulham smash Nottingham Forest twitter facebook reddit twitter facebook reddit

Neeskens Kebano scored his first goal of the 2021-22 campaign as Fulham brushed aside Nottingham Forest 4-0 in Sunday's EFL Championship encounter.

Playing in his 12th match of the ongoing campaign, the DR Congo international found the net in the entertaining encounter at the City Ground.

Fuelled by victories against Queens Park Rangers and Cardiff City, the Cottagers travelled to Nottinghamshire with the ambition of extending their impressive run against Steve Cooper's men.

That paid off in the seventh minute as Djed Spence turned the ball into his own net.

The hosts almost restored parity soon after but Brennan Johnson blocked a back-pass to Marek Rodak, unfortunately, the ball squirmed wide of the Fulham goal.

Despite boasting with superior ball possession and several goalscoring opportunities, Cooper's team went into the half time break with a goal deficit.

Serbian forward Aleksandar Mitrovic doubled the advantage for Fulham two minutes before the hour mark before Kebano made it three, four minutes later after he was teed up by Welsh midfielder Harry Wilson.

Things got worse for Forest in the 66th minute when Dennis Odoi was brought down inside the area as the hosts tried in vain to defend a cross from the right.

Congolese goalkeeper Brice Samba guessed the right way but could do nothing to stop Mitrovic's powerful penalty from nestling into the left-hand corner of the net.

Addressing the media after the encounter, manager Marco Silva was pleased with the way his side saw off in-form Nottingham Forest to complete a perfect week since the squad returned from the international break.

"It was a tough game, like we expected. We came here to play against a team in a good moment," he said.

"In the last six, they had won five. Since Steve's [Cooper] arrival, they hadn't had a bad result. Our aim was clear, to claim nine points in a week and that's what we did.

"This is our way, it's what we work on. Keeping a clean sheet is important, because to play good offensive football, you have to be compact as a team and be balanced.

"We clearly improved in the second-half, and scoring four goals again, it's not the first time, it's more than once."