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Tag: Palace

  • Conference League: Palace Beat Shakhtar to Reach First European final

    Conference League: Palace Beat Shakhtar to Reach First European final

    Crystal Palace swept past Shakhtar Donetsk 5-2 on aggregate to reach their first-ever European final on Thursday, giving manager Oliver Glasner the chance of a fairytale end to his golden reign.

    The Eagles led 3-1 after the first leg of the UEFA Conference League semi-final and went further ahead in the first half at a crackling Selhurst Park, courtesy of an own goal from Pedro Henrique.

    Eguinaldo levelled but Ismaila Sarr continued his rich vein of form by scoring his ninth goal of the competition early in the second period to make it 2-1 on the night.

    Glasner’s men will face Rayo Vallecano in the final in Leipzig later this month after the Spanish side beat Strasbourg 2-0 on aggregate.

    “It’s incredible, obviously for this football club, you see the connections between the players and supporters, it’s fantastic, it’s unbelievable,” Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson told TNT Sports.

    “The manager came in, he made this team believe we can win any game. It’s been a difficult season obviously with the amount of games we’ve played, we’ve delivered another final, which is fantastic.”

    The south London side took the lead in the second leg in the 25th minute after a surging attack, with Adam Wharton at the centre of the move.

    Dmytro Riznyk palmed away Wharton’s stinging long-range shot but was helpless as Daniel Munoz’s follow-up from a tight angle flicked off Henrique and flew past him.

    Eguinaldo made it 1-1 for the exiled Ukrainian team with a nonchalant finish into the top corner, leaving Henderson rooted to the spot.

    Jean-Philippe Mateta crashed a shot against the post with an audacious scissor-kick shortly before interval as the home side continued to threaten.

    The tie was effectively over soon after the restart when Sarr turned in Tyrick Mitchell’s cross from close range and Palace saw out the game comfortably.

    – History makers –

    The final in Leipzig on May 27 will be Glasner’s final match in charge after he announced earlier this season that he would leave when his contract expires next month.

    The 51-year-old Austrian, who arrived early in 2024, has overseen a golden period for Palace, guiding them to a 1-0 win over Manchester City in last season’s FA Cup final — the club’s first major trophy.

    Palace then beat Liverpool on penalties in the season-opening Community Shield.

    The Conference League, Europe’s third-tier competition, was only launched in 2021 and two of the four winners so far have been London clubs — West Ham in 2023 and Chelsea last season.

    Palace are only in the competition because they were demoted from the Europa League before the start of the season after UEFA ruled they had breached multi-club ownership rules.

    Winning the Conference League would guarantee entry into next season’s Europa League.

    Glasner, who won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, was in sparkling form in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, saying his players wanted to taste the “honey” again after winning the FA Cup last year.

    Now they have the chance of a sweetest end to their season.

    AFP

  • Arsenal Reach League Cup Semis With Shoot-out Win Over Palace

    Arsenal Reach League Cup Semis With Shoot-out Win Over Palace

     

    Kepa Arrizabalaga was Arsenal’s League Cup quarter-final hero with the decisive penalty shoot-out save that completed a miserable evening for Crystal Palace defender Maxence Lacroix on Tuesday.

    Lacroix’s own goal put Arsenal ahead with 10 minutes left at the Emirates Stadium before Marc Guehi snatched Palace’s stoppage-time equaliser in the 1-1 draw.

    That set the stage for a shoot-out in which both teams scored their first seven penalties.

     

    William Saliba converted Arsenal’s eighth kick and Kepa dived to his right to save Lacroix’s effort and secure an 8-7 victory.

    It was a cathartic moment for the Spanish goalkeeper, who infamously refused to be substituted before Chelsea’s League Cup final penalty shoot-out defeat against Manchester City in 2019.

    Kepa also missed a spot-kick in the 2022 League Cup final shoot-out loss to Liverpool.

    The Gunners will play London rivals Chelsea in the semi-finals over two legs in January and February, with Manchester City facing holders Newcastle in the other last four clash.

    Arsenal are into the League Cup semi-finals for a second successive year as they chase their first trophy since winning the FA Cup in 2020.

    The north Londoners have only won the League Cup twice, with their last triumph coming in 1992-93, before any of their current squad were born.

    After celebrating Christmas on Thursday, Mikel Arteta’s men will turn their attention back to the title race with home games against Brighton and third-placed Aston Villa to close out 2025.

    Winning their first English title since 2004 is clearly Arsenal’s main aim this season, but lifting the League Cup in March would be a significant boost to a club starved of silverware in recent years.

    Thrashed at Leeds in the Premier League on Saturday, Palace were playing their third game in six days after a fixture pile-up caused by their involvement in the UEFA Conference League.

    Arteta made eight changes to the side that won at Everton on Saturday, but still fielded a strong line-up featuring William Saliba, Mikel Merino, Eberechi Eze, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.

    Jesus, who ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in January, started for the first time in 345 days after returning to action as a substitute against Club Brugge earlier this month.

    – Kepa redemption –
    Noni Madueke, another of Arteta’s changes, should have put Arsenal ahead after just three minutes, but the England winger shot straight at Walter Benitez after racing onto Martinelli’s pass.

    Madueke was denied by Benitez again when Martinelli’s delicate chip picked him out in the six-yard box.

    Benitez plunged to his left to keep out Jesus’s close-range header with another fine save.

    Riccardo Calafiori squandered a good opportunity, poking over from 10 yards, before Benitez saved Madueke’s blast from Myles Lewis-Skelly’s cross.

    By the time Jurrien Timber headed wastefully over from 10 yards, Arteta must have been wondering if Arsenal would ever make the breakthrough.

    Arteta sent on Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard in the second half, the latter making an immediate impact with a cross that Jesus nodded narrowly wide.

    Arsenal finally broke the stalemate in the 80th minute.

    Not for the first time this season, it was a Gunners set-piece that did the damage as Saka’s corner caused chaos and Lacroix, under pressure from Saliba, poked past Benitez as he tried to clear.

    But Palace gave Arsenal a taste of their own set-piece medicine, equalising with their first shot on target in the 95th minute.

    Adam Wharton’s free-kick was headed down by Jefferson Lerma and Guehi slotted home from close range.

    After a host of nerveless penalties in the shoot-out, Kepa ended as Arsenal’s saviour.

  • Man City Smash Palace To Fire Title Warning, Villa Extend Winning Run

    Man City Smash Palace To Fire Title Warning, Villa Extend Winning Run

     

    Manchester City thumped Crystal Palace 3-0 on Sunday to climb back to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal as Aston Villa twice came from behind to beat West Ham.

    Elsewhere, Nottingham Forest demolished Tottenham 3-0, while Sunderland saw off local rivals Newcastle 1-0 thanks to a Nick Woltemade own goal.

    Arsenal, who have set the pace in this season’s Premier League, squeaked home on Saturday with a 2-1 win against bottom-club Wolves, thanks to two own goals.

    That put the pressure back on City, who have been showing ominous signs that they are finding their feet in recent weeks.

    Pep Guardiola’s men braced for a tough task at Selhurst Park against high-flying Crystal Palace, and Oliver Glasner’s side was the more dangerous team in the first half.

    But Palace failed to take their chances, with Yeremy Pino hitting the crossbar with only goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to beat.

    Erling Haaland had largely been on the periphery of the game but scored his 101st Premier League goal when he headed a pinpoint Matheus Nunes cross across Dean Henderson and into the net shortly before the break.

    Palace again started the second half brightly but could not break through and paid the price when Phil Foden swept home from a distance after receiving the ball from Rayan Cherki.

     

    It was the sixth goal in four Premier League games for the forward, being watched at Selhurst Park by England manager Thomas Tuchel.

    City made certain of the three points when Haaland thundered a penalty past Henderson after Savinho was taken down by the goalkeeper following a surging run down the middle late in the game.

     

    Villa Show Steel

    Villa started their match at the London Stadium as the form team in the league, with nine wins in 10 league matches.

    But they fell behind after just 29 seconds when Mateus Fernandes robbed Ezri Konsa and rifled home.

    Unai Emery’s men were level just minutes later when John McGinn’s cross was headed into his own net by Konstantinos Mavropanos.

    Jarrod Bowen put the Hammers back in front midway through the second half, but Villa again drew level early in the second period through Morgan Rogers.

    Rogers fired Villa into the lead for the first time in the 79th minute, smashing home a dipping drive from outside the box to seal a 3-2 win.

    The victory leaves Emery’s men just one point behind City and five clear of fourth-placed Chelsea.

    Tottenham travelled to Nottingham in desperate need of a win after just one victory in their past six league matches.

    But Callum Hudson-Odoi scored twice, and Ibrahim Sangare lashed home a superb third to increase the pressure on manager Thomas Frank, struggling in his first season at the club.

    Sunderland were facing Newcastle in the Premier League for the first time in nearly a decade after spending years out of the top division.

    Their goal came from an unlikely source when Newcastle forward Woltemade headed Nordi Mukiele’s cross past his own goalkeeper in the opening moments of the second half.

    The win lifted Sunderland to seventh in the table.

    Brentford host Leeds in the late kick-off.

    AFP