Tzolakis Mixes Error and Big Saves as Hull Lose 1-0 at Fulham

By Taki Panos

Goalkeeping is a cruel job. You can make the two saves that matter most and still be the name in the headline for the one that got away. That was Konstantinos Tzolakis's Saturday in London, where Hull City lost 1-0 to Fulham at Craven Cottage in the Premier League, as Sky Sports reported. Alex Iwobi scored the only goal just after the half-hour mark, and his shot slipped under the Greece goalkeeper's dive. Tzolakis then kept Hull in the game with two big stops in the second half.

For readers just catching up, Tzolakis is the 23-year-old Greece international who left Olympiacos for newly promoted Hull in August, signing a five-year contract for a club-record fee thought to be around £20 million plus add-ons, BBC Sport reported at the time. He made 131 appearances for the Piraeus club (more on the club itself in our Olympiacos facts page) and won eight trophies there, including four Greek league titles and the 2023/24 Conference League. Hull's previous transfer record, £13 million for Ryan Mason, had stood since 2016.

The goal came from a moment Hull will not enjoy watching back. They twice failed to clear their lines, Sander Berge slid the ball into Iwobi's path at the edge of the box, and his low shot took a deflection off Lucas Herrington before squirming under Tzolakis, per BBC Sport, which said the keeper perhaps should have done better. The Guardian was blunter, writing that the first-time shot should not have troubled the goalkeeper but went under his rolling dive at the near post. Fair criticism. Not the end of the story, though.

Because the second half belonged to Tzolakis as much as anyone in a Hull shirt. In the 54th minute he denied Josh King after a neat give-and-go with Shea Charles, and four minutes later he came out on top when Iwobi went one-on-one with him after some sharp one-touch play, according to Sky Sports' key moments. BBC Sport noted that Tzolakis dealt with clear-cut chances for both Iwobi and King. Without those saves, this could easily have been 3-0 and a very different conversation.

Fulham hit the woodwork too. Gonzalo García headed Iwobi's inswinging cross against the crossbar in the 74th minute, Sky Sports reported, and the Guardian said the Spaniard was unmarked at the back post. Late on, Fulham substitute Ryan Sessegnon was sent off in stoppage time for a late challenge that caught Hull's Robinio Vaz around the heel and Achilles area. Hull also wanted a penalty when Joe Gelhardt went down in the area in the 82nd minute, but referee Chris Kavanagh waved it away.

The numbers tell you how one-sided it was. Fulham had 76.2% of the ball and made 717 passes, their highest total in a Premier League match this season, BBC Sport said. Hull, meanwhile, did not register a single shot on target in the entire game, the first time that had happened to them in the Premier League since a match against Crystal Palace in May 2017. When your goalkeeper is your busiest player and your attack never tests theirs, a 1-0 loss is close to the best case.

Hull head coach Sergej Jakirovic did not hide from it. "I told this guy that it was the worst performance since I've been here," he said, as quoted by Sky Sports. "They were much, much better than us and congratulations to them. They played an excellent game. We were very, very poor. We collapsed together." He also described it as "men against boys" and added: "They ate us alive." That is not a coach blaming his goalkeeper. That is a coach blaming everybody, himself included.

For Fulham, the result was a big relief. It was the first Premier League win of Álvaro Arbeloa's managerial career, at the seventh attempt, and it lifted them off the bottom of the table and out of the relegation zone, the Guardian reported. Fulham had taken just two points from their first six games. "It's a massive game for us," Arbeloa told BBC Match of the Day, per BBC Sport, pointing to a big week ahead.

Hull's start had been far brighter than many expected from a promoted side. They came up by beating Middlesbrough in the Championship playoff final, Sportstar noted, and even after Saturday they sit ninth, according to BBC Sport. The worry is the trend: Hull are now winless in five league games, the Guardian wrote, including a 2-2 home draw with Everton the previous weekend, per Football Web Pages. BBC Sport asked whether the honeymoon is over for the "shot-shy Tigers". Good question.

Tzolakis's story is one Greek fans know well. Born in Chania on Crete (if you ever visit, our Chania restaurant guide is a good place to start), he joined the Olympiacos academy from Platanias, Hull's signing announcement said (translated from Greek). He saved three penalties in the shootout against Fenerbahçe on the way to the 2024 Conference League title and kept a clean sheet in the final against Fiorentina. He was later named Super League Player of the Season for 2024/25, Sportstar reported. He was Hull's top choice after Ivor Pandur left for Rangers, Hull Live reported.

My take: this was a mixed day, not a bad one. The goal was a save he would expect to make, and at Premier League level those moments get punished and replayed. But he did not let it rattle him, and the two second-half stops were exactly the kind of saves a big-money keeper is bought to make. He is also part of a bigger picture, with Greeks like Konstantinos Mavropanos at West Ham and Kostas Tsimikas at Liverpool both making noise in English football this season. The bigger problem at Hull is in front of him, not behind.

Next up for Hull is a home game against Brentford on Sunday, October 25, at 2:00 PM GMT (4:00 PM in Greece) at the MKM Stadium, per the Premier League's schedule. Expect Tzolakis to be busy again, and expect Jakirovic to want a lot more from his attack. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for more on Greeks playing abroad. One slip, two saves. Keep going, Kostas.

Sources: Sky Sports, The Guardian, BBC Sport, BBC Sport transfer report, Hull Live, Protothema, Sportstar, Sport24, Football Web Pages, Premier League.

Image: Flag of Greece, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).