Marco Silva on ‘best team’ Fulham inflicting defeat on Tottenham – and penalty here Tete’s costly boot issue

BY DAN EVANS

Marco Silva felt his Fulham side more than merited their penalty shootout win against Tottenham in the second round of the EFL Cup.

Kenny Tete completed a peculiar evening by scoring the decisive spot-kick after Richarlison had cancelled out a Micky Van de Ven own goal in the second half.

Despite the late drama, Silva was content that the right team progressed on the night.

“The best team won,” he said. “What’s clear is from the first minute we were on the front foot. That was the plan and the players executed it.

“We pressed them really high and didn’t let them set. That was one of the keys for us throughout the game to give us the confidence we needed.

“During the 97 minutes we were the team with more chances to score, we played better and it (the win) was deserved.”

Richarlison’s 56th-minute equaliser arrived when Tete was back in the Fulham dressing room changing one of his boots after it had ripped.

Referee Joshua Smith sent him from the field to find alternative footwear, forcing the home side to defend with 10 men temporarily.

Without explaining the finer details of the incident, Silva made clear that his team would not be conceding in similar circumstances any time soon.

“In the future we are going to approach this in a different way because we gave the opposition an opportunity against 10 men for two or three minutes,” he explained. “It is the first and last time that this is going to happen to us.”

When asked how Fulham will approach similar situations in the future, Silva simply said “you will have to wait and see”.

Silva, who was serving a touchline ban after picking up three yellow cards in the first three games of the Premier League season, did not put any blame on the officials.

“The referee did what he should have done to keep the game going,” he said. “We have to approach the situation in a different way.”

The Portuguese boss was forced to watch the victory from the upper tier of the Riverside Stand, and made it clear it was not something he planned to do again in the future.

“It’s really difficult [to watch from the stands],” he said. “The vision is perfect to analyse the game I have to tell you. It is the perfect place for the analysts, but my place is on the touchline.”