At least they can draw some comfort from the fact that Reading will be without skipper Paul McShane at the Madejski Stadium in Tuesday night's second leg, after he received a straight red card for planting his studs into Kevin McDonald's knee 10 minutes from time.
Reading had taken a surprise lead through Jordan Obita, but after Cairney equalised they had to withstand a second-half onslaught. The Londoners may consider that they have a slight advantage after Paul McShane, the Reading captain, was sent off ten minutes from the end of yesterday's game and will miss Tuesday's match and the final if Reading get there.
Sheffield Wednesday travel to Huddersfield Town for the second semi-final on Sunday ahead of the second legs in midweek.
It was a hostile atmosphere for Reading to walk out into in the SW6 sunshine with Fulham fans relishing the occasion, but the visitors stood up to the task well during the early stages.
But the 100 miles per hour pace of the contest denied them the opportunity to play the kind of measured football that has been such a feature of their season.
The hosts were looking the most likely scorers with Cairney curling an effort agonisingly wide while Sone Aluko dragged a shot past the past after good work by Floyd Ayite.
Reading had the better of the first 15 minutes, pressing Fulham haphazardly and seeing Lewis Grabban get in behind the Fulham defence a number of times, only to miscontrol the ball and be unable to get a shot away.
But the tables turned in dramatic fashion as Reading's first shot in anger on Marcus Bettinelli's goal found its way into the net.
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Most worryingly for Simeone, this was not the same hard luck story. "Football is a marvellous game and anything can happen". We're going to try and do something practically impossible next week".
The Cottagers are the form team going into the first game of the elimination campaign, with four clubs fighting it out to win promotion into the Premier League.
That setback merely served to fire Fulham up, however, and they grabbed a 65th-minute equaliser. Fulham, though, hit back with a goal by their captain, Tom Cairney, after an error by Reading goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi.
They did manage to reclaim parity with a goal from Tom Cairney after falling behind to a Jordan Obita strike, but the lead they craved eluded them.
The Royals may now be favourites to progress to Wembley after escaping back to Berkshire with a 1-1 draw at Craven Cottage.
Reading: Al Habsi, McShane, Moore, Blackett, Gunter, Williams, Evans, Obita, Grabban (Mendes, min. 68) (Ilori, min. 82), Swift (van dan Berg, min. 74), Kermorgrant.
FULHAM: Bettinelli; Fredericks, Kalas, Ream, Malone; McDonald, Johansen, Cairney; Aluko (Cyriac 87), Ayite, Martin (Kebano 61).
Subs not used: Jaakkola, Popa, Beerens, McCleary.
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