Football
PA Sport 6y

Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic feels Cardiff could now be 'under the pressure'

Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic believes the pressure has shifted onto Cardiff after his side moved up to second in the Championship with a 2-1 win over relegated Sunderland.

Aleksandar Mitrovic's 76th-minute header completed the Cottagers' comeback win after Lucas Piazon had cancelled out Joel Asoro's opening goal.

The win lifted Fulham two points above Cardiff, who play Hull on Saturday, and means the race for automatic promotion will now go to the final day.

And while Jokanovic maintains the Welsh outfit still hold the upper hand, he was satisfied his team had made life as difficult as possible for their rivals.

He said: "This is a crucial stage in the Championship but I don't expect there to be this pressure in the next game.

"Now it's the turn of Cardiff and we are waiting to see if they are under the pressure. Now the ball is in a different court.

"I don't know if they are under pressure or not under pressure. It's not under my control. The situation is still in Cardiff's control. If they win two games, we cannot do anything.

"We have to try and win the last game against Birmingham and if that's not enough, we have to be ready for the next steps and be ready for the playoffs.

"If we can't finish it in the short way, we have to be ready to finish in the long way.''

Piazon's goal came after Sunderland had an appeal for a penalty turned down while Mitrovic appeared to have strayed offside when he headed the winner.

Jokanovic added: "Maybe we were lucky. I don't know if he touched the player or inside or outside. And the situation when Mitrovic got the goal too. Sometimes you must be lucky in this life. Sometimes it's very important.''

Sunderland manager Chris Coleman was adamant his side had been hard done to by the decisions of referee Peter Bankes and his assistants.

He said: "I was pleased with the performance. I was pleased with our guys but I was bitterly disappointed with the officials. Fulham are a good team and don't need any help, but they got some help tonight.

"It should have been a penalty. It wasn't even a tough call. And the second one is a yard offside and it's right in line with the linesman. And I thought it was in real time.

"We haven't been relegated because of referees, we've been relegated because we aren't good enough. But you want a bit of help.''

Coleman drew positives from the performance but admitted his rebuilding plans for next season cannot be put in place while the future ownership of the club is in doubt.

He said: "There is definitely a core to work with. But again until we know who's going to come in and say 'here we go' we don't know what we can do. We're a League One side and we have to build a team to get promotion.''

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