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Jokanovic plays down Fulham’s promotion bid ahead of west London derby

Fulham boss Slaviša Jokanović piled the pressure on Fulham to win against Brentford tomorrow, after admitting that promotion rivals Cardiff City are unlikely to lose again this season.

The Cottagers are currently second in the Championship, with Wolves 11 points clear in first and Cardiff City one point behind in third.

Fulham are enjoying an unbeaten run of 20 matches, but the Serb feels Cardiff are still favourites to go up.

Ahead of the game, Jokanović said: “I don’t see any opponent that can win against Cardiff too.

“Cardiff are in a position to be promoted.

“Now we make one step forward, but they are in control.”

With Fulham needing Cardiff to slip up for an automatic promotion place, it’s more likely their route to the Premier League will come via the playoffs. They’re priced at 1.83 to be promoted (source: MyBettingSites), which is much shorter than any of the other teams in contention for the playoffs.

A win tomorrow would be crucial for Fulham to keep their promotion on track, as with one game in hand a run of wins for the Welsh club would see Fulham in the playoffs.

Yet the head coach is more focused on tomorrow’s west London derby.

Jokanović said: “My target is only Brentford, I am not looking so far behind or ahead.

“I’m thinking step by step, game by game.

“We don’t need to think about second place, about promotion, now it is about a chance for us to play well, a chance for us to get three points.

“After this chance tomorrow afternoon, we start thinking about the next steps.”

After tomorrow’s game, Fulham’s next opponents will be Millwall on April 20.

The Lions are sixth in the table, and Jokanović admitted they are on an impressive run and fighting for playoffs.

He added that Sunderland are strong and physically impressive, which may not be easy when they play them on April 27.

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