Matheus Cunha’s late deflected strike rescued a point for Manchester United as Fulham were denied a first Premier League win of the season at Craven Cottage.
Fulham looked set to secure all three points after a bizarre own goal from Lisandro Martinez put the hosts in front and left United facing a third consecutive defeat. But with just a minute of normal time remaining, Cunha stepped up.
The Brazilian’s 20-yard effort took a huge deflection off Fulham defender David Affengruber, wrong-footed Bernd Leno and nestled into the corner to level the contest.
The equaliser was a cruel blow for Leno, who had produced several important saves to keep Fulham ahead as United piled on the pressure.
The result prevents Michael Carrick’s side from suffering three defeats in a week, but United head into the international break 12th in the Premier League with five points from their opening five matches. Fulham remain 19th with two points.
United started brightly and gradually took control of an entertaining first half. Bruno Fernandes came agonisingly close to opening the scoring when his effort from Cunha’s cutback struck the post.
That moment sparked Fulham into life, with the hosts producing a spell of sustained pressure.
Josh King and Oscar Bobb both went close, while Cunha saw another long-range effort take a deflection, loop over Leno and crash back off the post. Marcus Rashford then missed a good opportunity late in the half as both sides went into the break level.
The second half initially struggled to match the intensity of the first, but the game burst back into life when Senne Lammens failed to deal with Calvin Bassey’s low effort. Martinez was unable to recover, and his poor touch sent the ball into his own net.
United responded with sustained pressure, forcing Leno into excellent saves to deny both Bryan Mbeumo and Cunha. Eventually, the pressure told.
Cunha’s deflected effort found the net to earn United a point and deny Fulham what would have been a memorable first league victory of the campaign.
Both sides will feel they could have taken more from an entertaining contest, but the spoils were ultimately shared.
