Crystal Palace and Fulham shared the spoils in a hard-fought 0-0 draw in the Premier League at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon.
The 50th meeting between these sides was an evenly-matched encounter with very few clear-cut chances, and the final scoreline was probably a fair representation of the match as a whole.
Palace came into the match following a 3-1 loss away at Villa Park last week that brought an end to a three-match unbeaten run from either side of the international break, while Fulham were looking for just their second win of the season, having only beaten Everton on opening weekend.
Roy Hodgson, who first faced Fulham in 1982 as a manager and was also in charge of the Cottagers for 128 games between 2007 and 2009, returned to the dugout for Palace after missing the last match through illness.
Fulham started the brighter of the sides in the opening minutes of the match and carved out an excellent chance inside the first five minutes of the game, which Andreas Pereira fired at goal, but Sam Johnstone was up to the challenge and pulled off a good save.
In a back-and-forth first half, the game needed a bit of individual brilliance to open it up, and Eberechi Eze almost provided it midway through with a neat cut inside onto his right foot but curled his shot narrowly wide as Bernd Leno went sprawling to his left.
Fulham created a good opportunity just after the half-hour mark with a ball over the top that found Raul Jimenez, who fired a fierce low shot at goal, but once again Johnstone refused to be beaten.
The visitors had a huge chance just after the 60-minute mark with a three-on-two attack as they caught Palace pushing out, but Jimenez played the crucial squared pass ahead of Pereira, who would have had a tap-in had the ball been more accurate.
Johnstone was the standout performer for the Eagles and was called into action again in the 82nd minute as Willian got on the end of a cutback in the box, but the Palace shot-stopper was equal to the task again.
Carlos Vinicius came off the bench for the final quarter of an hour and had a chance to snatch a late equaliser, but was forced wide and failed to find the target with a last ditch effort.
Palace will now prepare to face Manchester United in the EFL Cup next Tuesday, while Fulham play host to Championship club Norwich City a day later.
Devesh Jaganath
