Fulham boss happy with lethal counters as Mitrovic helps himself to hat-trick

Marco Silva was delighted with Fulham’s rapid counter-attacks in their 3-1 win against Swansea City at Craven Cottage on Wednesday evening.

An Aleksandar Mitrovic first-half hat-trick gave the Whites all three points and moved them up to third in the Championship.

Silva said: “Happy with the result. It was a very good first-half from ourselves. I said before the game I expected a very good game from both teams – the way we like to play and the way our opponent likes to play. I expected an open game, two quality teams, trying to win the game, trying to press high.

“In the first half we did so well, the way we beat the pressure, the way we analyse the actions.

“In our offensive transition as well, counter-attacks, we had two fantastic moments, Bobby missed a big chance and the third goal from Mitro was our most perfect offensive transition. The way we built our attacks was really, really good.

“We knew that they like to press high. Without the ball, good organisation was a big part of the first-half.

“Unfortunately second-half was different. We had one injury yesterday, we missed Robinson with an issue with his knee. Tonight was Joe Bryan.

“Without left-backs on the bench, we changed the formation and managed the game in a different way, not so much with the ball like we like, but we showed a good organisation and managed the game.

“They had a big chance at the start of the second half but after that they didn’t have so many, and we had a big chance with Denis and set-pieces.

“The game was more balanced in the second-half than the first. We deserved clearly to win the three points, we were the best team on the pitch.”