Fulham 1 Man City 2: Mancini praises Citizens’ perseverance

Roberto Mancini hailed his side’s perseverance after Manchester City came from a goal down to beat Fulham and keep within four points of leaders Chelsea.

Martin Jol’s side took the lead when Pablo Zabaleta was adjudged to have fouled John Arne Riise in the box and Mladen Petric converted the resulting spot-kick.

But Sergio Aguero equalised from close range, before substitute Eden Dzeko scored within a minute of coming off the bench to clinch victory in the 87th minute.

“I think that we played a good game,” said Mancini. “To win the game we had a lot of chances, but it was a difficult match because we were 1-0 down. I’m very pleased with this.

“For me, it was never a penalty [for Fulham’s opener]. But the guys today played a really good game.

“I was worried because we continued to play well and continued to create chances, but didn’t score for 87 minutes. I was pleased for Edin to score such an important goal.”

Fulham boss Jol could not hide his frustration at his side’s failure to hang on for a draw with just three minutes of normal time left to play.

“We got a goal after 10 minutes which is the platform you need against the top teams but after that we didn’t do enough to play in our style,” he said.

“When you have the ball you have to keep it and we didn’t do that in the second half. Even so, if it is still 1-1 after 87 minutes then you obviously have the hope that you will get a result.”