BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 1 FULHAM 1
PREMIER LEAGUE <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
at the AMERICAN EXPRESS STADIUM, FALMER.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Embarking on their ninth consecutive season in the Premier, for their opening fixture in the 2025-2026 campaign the Albion welcomed West London rivals Fulham to the Amex, the match being covered by BBC Radio Sussex Sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So far, close-season 2025 transfer activity at the Amex had been brisk, with in-comings including Tommy Watson (19) forward from Sunderland, Stefanos Tzimas (19) forward from Nuremberg, Charalampos Kostoulas (18) forward from Olympiacos, Diego Coppola (21) defender from Hellas Verona, Olivier Boscagli (27) defender from PSV Eindhoven, Yoon Doyoung (18) forward from Daejeon Hana Citizen and Maxim De Cuyper (24) defender from Club Brugge.
Outgoings included Joao Pedro (23) forward to Chelsea, Valentin Barco (20) defender to Strasbourg, Odeluga Offiah (22) defender to Preston North End, Simon Adingra (23) forward to Sunderland, Pervis Estupinan (27) defender to AC Milan, and Kjell Scherpen (25) goalkeeper to Royale Union Saint-Gilloise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Season-long loans out included James Beadle (20) goalkeeper to Birmingham City, Amario Cozier-Duberry (20) midfielder to Bolton Wanderers, Ibrahim Osman (20) forward to Auxerre, Evan Ferguson (20) forward to AS Roma, Carl Rushworth (24) goalkeeper to Coventry City, Eiran Cashin (23) defender to Birmingham City and Malick Yalcouye (19) midfielder to Swansea City. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
1-year contract extensions were signed by Tariq Lamptey (24) defender and James Milner (39) midfielder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backroom staff appointments included Jolle Ten Rouwelaar (44) goalkeeping coach and Yannick Euvrard (39) set-piece coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By way of contrast, transfer activity to date in the close-season 2025 at Craven Cottage had been very quiet, with the only newcomer being goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte arriving from Ligue 1 side Montpellier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In their meetings in the Premier last season, Fulham won 3-1 at Craven Cottage on the 5 December 2024, with their goals coming from Alex Iwobi 2 (4m & 87m) and an own goal from Matt O'Riley (71m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albion's consolation was scored by Carlos Baleba (56m). In the reverse fixture at the Amex on the 8 March 2025, the Albion ran out 2-1 winners, the scorers being Jan Paul Van Hecke (41m) and a Joao Pedro penalty (90+8m), whilst Fulham's goal came from Raul Jimenez (35m). It was Albion's Premier in ten attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The line-ups for this one saw former Club Brugge defender Maxim De Cuyper (24) given his Albion debut in the starting eleven. Other Albion newcomers, defenders Olivier Boscagli (27) and Diego Coppola (21) had to content themselves with seats on the Albion substitutes bench. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Fulham, newcomer goalkeeper Benjamin Lecomte started on the substitutes bench. The referee was Samuel Barrott from Yorkshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to kick-off there was a minute's silence in memory of Diogo Jota and Andre Silva, which was impeccably observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Cottagers were fast out of the traps and the lively Josh King set-up Raul Jimenez with the first chance but the striker fired wide of the target. Next, Yankuba Minteh thought he had fired the Seagulls ahead but his goal was disallowed as the ball had gone out of play in the build-up. Bernd Leno in the Fulham goal was then called into action when he got down well to save Georginio Rutter's piledriver from 20 yards out. Kaoru MItoma then saw his header land on the roof of the Fulham net. At the other end Harry Wilson sent a header wide of the target from Alex Iwobi's cross. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Half-time 0-0<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First chance of the second-half fell to the visitors but Albion keeper Bart Verbruggen smothered\u00a0King's close-range effort. \u00a0However, on 55 minutes the Albion took the lead when Sander Berge brought down Rutter in the box and Matt O' Riley calmly converted the resultant penalty-kick to put the Seagulls ahead. \u00a01-0.<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matt 0'Riley<\/p>\n\n\n In the very last minute of time added on Fulham secured a share of the points when Wilson's corner fell to unmarked substitute Rodrigo Muniz at the far post and the striker slammed the ball home for his teams equaliser. Cue mayhem amongst the followers of Fulham. A poor goal for the Albion to concede. 1-1<\/strong>. The Referee's final whistle then sounded and it was two points tossed away by the Albion. Match stats:<\/strong> VERDICT <\/strong> - When will Albion learn, after throwing away two points in their season opener. Fabian Hurzeler and his coaches need to get the game management sorted out and quick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Great that football's back!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Albion line-up (4-2-3-1<\/strong>):- Bart VERBRUGGEN; Mats WIEFFER, Jan Paul VAN HECKE, Lewis DUNK (Capt), Maxim DE CUYPER; Carlos BALEBA (Diego GOMEZ 69), Yasin AYARI; Yankuba MINTEH (Ferdi KADIOGLU 69), Matt O'RILEY (James MILNER 88), Kaoru MITOMA (Brajan GRUDA 83); Georginio RUTTER (Danny WELBECK 69). Fulham line-up (4-2-3-1)<\/strong>:- Bernd LENO (Capt), Kenny TETE, Joachim ANDERSEN, Jorge CUENCA (Timothy CASTAGNE 84), Calvin BASSEY; Sasa LUKIC, Sander BERGE (Tom CAIRNEY 66); Harry WILSON, Josh KING (Emile SMITH ROWE 77), Alex IWOBI (Adama TRAORE 66); Raul JIMENEZ (Rodrigo MUNIZ 66). Referee:<\/strong> Samuel Barrott (Yorkshire). Yellow Cards:<\/strong> Possession:<\/strong> Albion - 50%. Fulham - 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attendance: 31,478.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NEXT GAME:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 24 AUGUST 2025 - EVERTON - Away - Premier League - kick-off 14.00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \"Live\" on Sky Sports<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jack Kaye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 20 August 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 16 AUGUST 2025 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 1 FULHAM 1 PREMIER LEAGUE at the AMERICAN EXPRESS STADIUM, FALMER. Embarking on their ninth consecutive season in the Premier, for their opening fixture in the 2025-2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jack-kayes-football-reports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5058,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5054\/revisions\/5058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.shavuatov.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/image-37.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Minteh then wasted a good chance when firing wide from Mitoma's\u00a0pass and minutes later substitute Diego Gomez saw his fierce shot saved by Leno. \u00a0O'Riley's\u00a0effort then narrowly missed the goal but Fulham had not given up and shots by Kenny Tete and substitute Emile Smith Rowe missed the target. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final-score 1-1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albion had 10 attempts at goal, with 4 on target and won 4 corners, free-kicks conceded - 16. Fulham had 7 attempts at goal, with 2 on target and won 3 corners, free-kicks conceded - 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: Jason STEELE (G\/K), Olivier BOSCAGLI, Diego COPPOLA, Joel VELTMAN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subs not used: Benjamin LECOMTE (G\/K), Issa DIOP, Andreas PEREIRA, Harrison REED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourth Official:<\/strong> Thomas Bramall.
VAR Official:<\/strong> Matt Donohue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Albion: 3 - Diego Gomez, Ferdi Kadioglu, Kaoru Mitoma.
Fulham: 3 - Calvin Bassey, Tom Cairney, Rodrigo Muniz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n