Fulham vs Brighton and Hove Albion; Premier League
Fulham vs Brighton and Hove Albion. Premier League.
Craven CottageAttendance27,239.
Fulham 2
- S Chukwueze (72nd minute)
- H Wilson (92nd minute)
Brighton and Hove Albion 1
- Y Ayari (28th minute)
Fulham 2-1 Brighton: Harry Wilson scores 92nd-minute free-kick in second-half turnaround to earn late victory
Report and free match highlights as Harry Wilson scores 92nd-minute winner for Fulham; Yasin Ayari fired Brighton in front during first half; Samuel Chukwueze equalised for Fulham; Danny Welbeck has goal ruled out for offside; Wilson nets late free-kick to move Fulham up to seventh
Saturday 24 January 2026 18:35, UK
Harry Wilson scored a 92nd-minute winner from a free-kick as Fulham produced a second-half turnaround to earn a 2-1 victory over Brighton, who have won just once in their last 10 league games.
Wilson struck his ninth goal of the season from 25 yards in stoppage time, with goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen caught out by his effort which sent Craven Cottage wild and leaves Brighton languishing in mid-table, sliding down from fifth during this poor run of form.
Verbruggen was beaten on his side of the goal despite getting a hand to the free-kick and Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler was not prepared to blame his goalkeeper.
"We can't give the responsibility there for Bart, he's played a great season and sometimes these kinds of things happen," he said.
"Sometimes you can't control everything in football. Young players make mistakes and therefore we have to give them protection, we have to give them the self-confidence that they learn from it and do it better the next time."
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Fulham had fallen behind against the run of play in the first half when Yasin Ayari powered a rocket past Bernd Leno at his near post, despite the goalkeeper getting his fingertips to the ball.
Brighton had been toothless until that moment, yet quickly went close to a second as Kaoru Mitoma was denied by Leno and Ferdi Kadioglu's header from the rebound was cleared off the line by Timothy Castagne.
Fulham then levelled in the second half through substitute Samuel Chukwueze, who raced in behind from Joachim Andersen's long ball forward and calmly slotted past Verbruggen from an angle.
But Brighton thought they were back in front just 80 seconds later. Fulham pushed for a second and were caught on the counter with Mitoma slipping in Danny Welbeck and he finished past Leno only for the VAR to rule his goal out for offside.
Welbeck was then denied with his head by a good save from Leno before the game appeared to be heading for a draw until Wilson's latest moment of magic delivered Fulham the points to move them up to seventh.
Hurzeler: Football is brutal
Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler:
"We were quite strong, we created a lot of chances, we were the better team but that's sometimes football.
"Football is brutal and therefore we need to accept it, but regarding the performance, we were pleased, regarding the result we are all very disappointed.
"We controlled everything we could control. We can't control the VAR, we can't control some individual errors, but if we had played a perfect game, then I think we would be the winner, but that wasn't the case."
Silva: A draw would have been fair
Fulham head coach Marco Silva:
"A big win for us. Probably a fair result should be a draw, in my opinion. I think it's harsh for them to lose the game the way they lost.
"It was like that in some moments where we have deserved much more from games and we didn't. This afternoon, it came in our favour, and we won a big three points for it."
