Wilson and Pereira fire Fulham to win at Sunderland to set up Leeds FA Cup tie

Should Fulham end up winning the FA Cup this year they will surely regard their fourth-round struggles to overcome Sunderland as pivotal.

Thanks to goals from Harry Wilson, Andreas Pereira and Layvin Kurzawa, Marco Silva’s team succeeded at the second attempt and will host Leeds in the fifth round but the scoreline failed to do justice to the verve and vibrancy of their Championship opponents.

Although Sunderland missed some decent chances Tony Mowbray can be extremely proud of his talented young side who, as the 50th anniversary of the club’s famous 1973 FA Cup win over Leeds approaches, created a night to remember on Wearside.

Silva had not exactly been relishing the prospect of watching from the stands after incurring a one-game touchline ban but, after only eight minutes, the smile on the Fulham manager’s face suggested it was not such a bad vantage point after all.

Silva’s side heavily rotated starting XI featured nine changes from the side that started last Friday’s goalless draw at Chelsea but Fulham enjoyed the best possible start when Wilson subdued an initially raucous Wearside crowd by registering an early goal.

It all began when Sunderland failed to clear Kenny Tete’s cross and the ball eventually fell to Carlos Vinícius who, with back to goal, held it up superbly before supplying Wilson with a clever lay-off.

The Wales winger did that delivery full justice, using the outside of a boot to steer a finely calibrated shot just beyond Anthony Patterson’s grasp and into the bottom corner.

From then on Fulham dominated possession for quite a while, their relative ease of control making it all too easy to identify which team sits eighth in the Premier League and which is currently ninth in the Championship.

Sunderland had given Silva’s players a fright in the original tie at Craven Cottage but Tony Mowbray’s pride at that draw was tempered by the season ending achilles tendon injury suffered by his leading scorer Ross Stewart.

With his Leeds loanee striker Joe Gelhardt cup tied, Mowbray lacked an orthodox centre forward here but, as Fulham discovered, he did possess an extremely gifted attacker in the Manchester United loanee winger Amad Diallo.

Although Diallo is no natural No 9 his quick feet, faster brain and adhesive dribbling skills sporadically discomfited Fulham and Marek Rodak did very well to parry a venomously swerving shot from the shoulder dropping 20-year-old Ivorian. Rodak looked suitably relieved when Abdoullah Ba failed to make the most of the rebound.

Andreas Pereira scores Fulham’s second goal against Sunderland. Photograph: Scott Heppell/Reuters

Sunderland had finally begun to succeed in playing between Silva’s defensive lines and the Stadium of Light’s decibel level rose approvingly yet, as half time approached, even this under-strength Fulham XI possessed sufficient nous to start applying a brake to Mowbray’s suddenly exhilaratingly high tempo team.

It helped that Silva had the talented Tom Cairney in his midfield to second guess many of Sunderland’s manoeuvres but the visiting manager could have done with Wilson taking at least one of the two highly inviting scoring chances he spurned after his early opener.

Perhaps the uncomfortably tight scoreline informed Silva’s decision to introduce his key striker Aleksandar Mitrovic from the bench at the outset of the second half when he and the similarly influential Pereira replaced Vinícius and Luke Harris.

Undaunted, Sunderland enjoyed their best spell of the evening, playing some seriously good, not to mention speedily incisive, pass and move stuff. Daniel Neil side-footed fractionally wide after being smartly cued up by Diallo and Rodak was required to contribute another important parry, from Patrick Roberts this time.

When Shane Duffy rescued Fulham by clearing off the line from Diallo after Roberts had nutmegged Cairney an equaliser felt near inevitable but, unfortunately for Mowbray, Mitrovic ensured the next goal fell to Fulham.

After connecting with Cairney’s splendid low pass, Mitrovic saw a shot blocked by the advancing Patterson but swiftly pounced on the loose ball, managing to pull it back for Pereira to tap it into the unguarded net.

Shortly afterwards Mowbray sent on the 15-year-old Chris Rigg who had a goal disallowed in the original tie but, instead of schoolboy heroics, Kurzawa volleyed Fulham’s third after Sunderland failed to clear Pereira’s corner.

Nonetheless when Kurzawa’s subsequent stumble enabled Jewison Bennette to lift a 90th minute shot into the top corner an extremely tense four minutes of added time ensued.