Premier League: Fulham 5 Norwich City 0

18 August 2012 18:28

Debutant Mladen Petric netted a brace as Fulham thrashed Norwich City 5-0 at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Damien Duff and Petric had the hosts 2-0 up at half-time, before the Croatian, Alexander Kacaniklic and substitute Steve Sidwell completed the rout on the opening day of the English Premier League season.

It took 18 minutes for the first chance to arrive but Bryan Ruiz, gifted a poor clearance from Norwich goalkeeper John Ruddy, could only lob harmlessly over the crossbar.

Five minutes later and Ruddy was involved again, but this time it was him showing his best, with a smart save down to his right to deny John Arne Riise's angled drive, before he also denied Petric.

Fulham started to dictate play and took a deserved lead in the 26th minute, although Chris Hughton would have been furious with his side's defending.

Riise was given time on the halfway line and the Norwegian hit a superb cross-field pass for Duff, who took a touch and flicked his finish past Ruddy.

Fulham were comfortably in charge of proceedings and doubled their lead in the 40th minute with a debut goal from former Hamburg striker Petric.

Ruiz had been denied, but from the resulting corner Petric headed past Ruddy - despite the best efforts of a man on the line - to double the home side's advantage heading into the break.

In the 54th minute the game was over as a contest, thanks to a second goal from Petric.

Another neat passing move involving Mahamadou Diarra, Moussa Dembele and Ruiz allowed Petric to find space 30 yards from goal.

When the ball arrived at the Croatian's feet, he rifled a left-footed shot which deflected off Michael Turner and nestled in the back of the net.

Twelve minutes later and Petric turned provider as Fulham cut the Norwich defence apart once more to make it 4-0.

The imperious Dembele again found space and attacked the Norwich defence before feeding Petric, whose terrific back-heel freed Kacaniklic, who converted coolly.

Sidwell replaced Ruiz and the former Aston Villa midfielder got his name on the scoresheet in the 86th minute from the penalty spot.

Another wonderful pass from Dembele found Hugo Rodallega, who was brought down by debutant Turner, and Sidwell smashed the spot-kick past Ruddy and into the roof of the net.