By Jake Sanders at Craven Cottage for NewsAtDen
ALEKSANDAR Mitrovic scored in either half to condemn Millwall to a fourth defeat in six Championship games in 2022, as the visitors lost 3-0 at Fulham on Tuesday night.
The lethal frontman put the hosts ahead on 29 minutes and doubled his and Fulham’s tally five minutes after the interval with a close-range finish before substitute Bobby Decordova-Reid made the points safe late on when he tapped home.
Millwall have now lost on each of their last three trips to Craven Cottage without scoring, and remain 15th in the Championship standings, eight points adrift of the top six.
Match action
Despite 21 points separating the two sides ahead of kick-off, Millwall more than matched their London opponents in the early exchanges. Moments in, Oliver Burke saw a deflected cross saved by Marek Rodak before Maikel Kieftenbeld had a great chance from 12 yards, but he couldn’t hit the target when he met Mason Bennett’s perfectly-weighted cross.
Millwall’s front three were causing problems throughout most of the opening quarter as the home side were unable to get going.
But Fulham clicked into gear just before the half-hour mark and took an undeserved lead. Neco Williams found space down the right and his cut-back clipped off Alex Pearce and into the path of Mitrovic, who thumped into the bottom corner.
Fulham hadn’t got out of first gear before then but were suddenly threatening to increase their lead when moments later Fabio Carvalho twisted and turned the Lions defence, but his left-footed effort lacked power, which made it easy for Bartosz Bialkowski to gather.
That goal rocked Millwall for a sustained period until half-time, but Gary Rowett’s men continued to frustrate the Championship leaders, limiting their opponents to mainly efforts from distance, with Williams and Tom Cairney both unable to find the target.
Shaun Hutchinson saw an effort blocked early in the second half as Millwall searched for an equaliser, but almost straight away the Lions fell even further behind when they were unable to deal with Cairney’s cross and despite Bialkowski making a sharp stop to deny Carvalho, Mitrovic was on hand to fire home his second from close-range.
Mitrovic should have completed his hat-trick minutes later, but was unable to keep his effort down.
Bennett blazed over at the other end as the Lions searched for a response, before he went close again just before the hour-mark after great work down the left from substitute Jed Wallace.
Millwall went even closer in the 70th minute as Burke did brilliantly to race away from Williams and pick out Wallace, but he wasn’t able to beat Rodak, who palmed his effort away before Bennett slammed the rebound wide.
The Lions continued to pile on the pressure and were almost back in the game on 80 minutes. Jake Cooper flicked on a free-kick, but Benik Afobe was only able to fire into the side-netting, even though the travelling supporters thought his effort had found the back of the net.
Millwall should have been back in the game by the time Carvalho’s scuffed effort left Decordova-Reid with a simple finish three minutes from time.
Mitrovic proves Millwall’s nemesis once again
The Serbian is the top-scorer in the Championship by some distance, so it’s fair to say that he scores against most opponents he comes up against.
But for some reason, the striker has it in for Millwall in particular. This was his fifth game against the Lions in recent years and his fourth and fifth goal in that period.
He netted in both games in the 2019-2020 season and then scored the opener at The Den back in August. His two strikes here means that the only time he hasn’t found the back of the net when facing Millwall as a Fulham player was in the Cottagers’ 3-0 victory in South London in April 2018.
Fulham might be in a rush to get back to the Premier League, and the Lions would be grateful not to face him next season.
Millwall show plenty of spirit – but familiar story going forward
Facing the runaway Championship leaders on their own patch was never meant to be an easy task. Despite a few early chances and some other efforts that flew comfortably over the bar, Rowett’s side created very little until the latter stages when the game opened up.
Bennett and Burke showed blistering pace at times, but whenever either got into dangerous areas, they lacked quality or picked the wrong pass. Afobe got little change out of Tosin Adarabioyo and Tim Ream apart from a late chance that he couldn’t tuck away.
Wallace looked sharp off the bench, teeing up Bennett for a decent chance. And he should have reduced the deficit soon after but he lacked composure and fired straight at Rodak instead of picking a corner.
Millwall weren’t short of fighting spirit, but they continue to lack quality in front of goal and then miss chances when they do come their way.
However, on this occasion they did more than enough to warrant at least one goal for their efforts.
Millwall: 5-2-3: Bialkowski; McNamara, Hutchinson, Pearce (J Wallace, 57), Cooper, M Wallace; Mitchell, Kieftenbeld; Burke (Freeman, 77), Afobe, Bennett (Burey, 77).
Image: Millwall FC