---
title: "Our man of the match: Fulham (A)"
canonical: "https://readnorwich.com/2017/08/05/our-man-of-the-match-fulham-a-2/"
type: "post"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Daniel Emery"
section: "Articles"
published: "2017-08-05T17:31:48Z"
modified: "2017-08-05T17:31:48Z"
---

# Our man of the match: Fulham (A)

Norwich City started their league campaign with an impressive draw away to Fulham on Saturday.

The Canaries scored late on to snatch a draw at Craven Cottage, although they deserved their share of the points from their performance.

Marley Watkins had two very good chances early on in the game but was unable to find a way past David Button.

Fulham took the lead midway through the first-half. Norwich skipper Russell Martin diverted the ball into his own net from a low centre into the box.

The hosts then began to control the game but Norwich were able to weather the storm, with Angus Gunn making a couple of good stops to keep it at 1-0.

Wes Hoolahan and Nelson Oliveira were both brought off the bench in the second half and combined to great effect to level the scores.

![Clive Rose/Getty Images Sport](https://media.readnorwich.com/readnorwich/2017/08/615453712.jpg)

Hoolahan clipped a ball over the top to Oliveira, who held off the defender before finishing low into the back of the net.

Picking a man of the match has been easy for me, with one player standing above the rest (quite literally).

Our Norwich man of the match against Fulham is… Christoph Zimmermann.

The summer signing from Germany was a rock at the back for Norwich, both as part of a back three and back four.

Zimmermann made some superb last ditch tackles and blocks to deny chances for Fulham and was dominant in the air.

He bailed out both Marcel Franke and Martin at times as well, sweeping up in the middle of a back three.

The 24-year-old was my player of pre-season as well. What a signing.