Fulham’s Iwobi joins Bassey in pursuit of European dreams

Super Eagles and Fulham attacking midfielder, Alex Chuka Iwobi, has joined Calvin Bassey in the pursuit of a European competition spot next season, Soccernet.ng reports.

Marco Silva’s side finished the last two seasons in 10th and 13th place respectively, but a positive surge of form has seen the Cottagers rank 8th after 25 top-flight games this campaign, and they’re currently four points behind the UEFA Champions League spots.

Following their huge 2-1 victory against Nottingham Forest last weekend, Iwobi has backed his side to build on their good form and gun for European spots.

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Iwobi credited their head coach, Marco Silva, for a job well done, by harnessing the strengths of the individuals in the team and putting it to collective use.

“He’s somebody that puts 100 per cent into his job every day. He always analyses, even after the game, we’re all celebrating and he’s still on the laptop analysing.

“That’s just the sort of guy that he is, he always wants to improve and that rubs off onto the players. The plan was executed to a tee, so it was a very good result for us,” the former Arsenal midfielder said in quotes revealed by The Mirror.

Additionally, the AFCON 2023 finalist played up the camaraderie in the Fulham squad, revealing their off-pitch relationships have helped them perform better on the pitch.

“The chemistry in the changing room is amazing. We’re not just colleagues or work friends, we’re actually like brothers. You see it all on social media and there’s a lot more that I wish I could post! But we’re one big family, it shows because Calvin was a bit down at the way Forest scored their goal. However, for him to respond and score like that, everyone got behind him and we’re so happy for him,” Iwobi added.

Fulham completed a double over Newcastle United this season, and the result gave Iwobi a confidence boost as he urged his side to go all out in the remaining games left this term, just like Calvin Bassey earlier mentioned.

“To do the double over big teams will give us an advantage but we always take it game by game. It doesn’t matter if the other team is challenging for the European spots or in the relegation zone, we’ll treat everyone with the same respect.

“We just have to keep on pushing, we see the quality in training every day. We’re all very ambitious and we take things step by step. It’s [European qualification] definitely in the back of our minds, though.”

Quizzed about the competition between Raul Jimenez and Rodrigo Muniz in the Fulham attack, Iwobi said;

“You’d think he’s [Raul] 24, he acts like he’s 24 as well sometimes! We’re so happy for him, both he and Rodrigo Muniz challenging for the starting spot is healthy.

“They both urge each other to push, even though they’re competing with one another, we’re family and Rodrigo will push him, just like Raul pushes Rodrigo, who scored two the other day.”

Fulham continue their hunt for European qualification on Saturday when they welcome Crystal Palace to the Craven Cottage.