Hurzeler: Football can be brutal sometimes

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Head coach reflects on stoppage-time defeat to Fulham.

Bruce Talbot

2026-01-24T17:35+00:00

Fabian Hurzeler gives out instructions on the Craven Cottage touchline. 📷James Boardman

Fabian Hurzeler admitted Albion's 2-1 defeat at Fulham was hard to take.

Leading until the 71st minute thanks to Yasin Ayari's first-half strike, Fulham drew level through Samuel Chukwueze and won it with an injury-time free kick by Harry Wilson after Danny Welbeck had been denied a goal by a contentious VAR call for offside.

Hurzeler said, "Sometimes the better team loses and we have to accept it. But it was one of our best performances so far.

"I think we were quite strong today. We created a lot of chances and were the better team. But sometimes football is brutal. We were pleased with the performance, but not the result."

Olivier Boscagli was caught out for Fulham's first goal and Bart Verbruggen couldn't keep out Wilson's free kick despite getting a strong hand to the shot, but Hurzeler refused to blame individuals for Albion's first loss in six.

"We can't control individual errors or VAR," he added. "We have to accept errors happen sometimes and try to do better. Bart has had a great season and sometimes these things happen.

"If there weren't errors there would never be any goals but I would never put any responsibility on Bart or Ollie. We defended well and controlled the game."