Eberechi Eze scored twice as Crystal Palace warmed up for next weekend’s FA Cup final with a hugely impressive win at Tottenham.

Eze put the Eagles in front towards the end of a first-half that had seen Palace have two goals chalked off by the VAR and the England midfielder doubled their advantage three minutes after the restart.

It was another woeful league display from Tottenham with Ange Postecoglou’s much-changed side failing to build on the momentum gained from qualifying for the Europa League final in midweek.

If that wasn’t bad enough for Postecoglou, he also had to contend with winger Dejan Kulusevski limping off with what looked a potentially nasty injury that could jeopardise his hopes of playing against Manchester United in Bilbao.

VAR frustrates dominant Palace

Palace started well and thought they had scored in the 10th-minute only for Ismaila Sarr’s close-range effort to be ruled out for offside.

Oliver Glasner’s men continued to dominate and only a fine save from stand-in goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky prevented Jean-Philippe Mateta from opening the scoring.

Daniel Munoz hit the Spurs’ bar before the right wing-back escaped again in behind the home defence. He ought to have shot but instead tried to pick out Mateta and the chance was lost.

Spurs were all over the place and had to rely on the VAR to disallow another Palace effort, Maxence Lacroix’s effort adjudged to have come off the arm of Marc Guehi before it hit the back of the net.

Eze brace too much for Spurs

Palace could have been forgiven for feeling sorry for themselves but, instead, they grabbed the goal they so richly deserved on the stroke of half-time.

The impressive Munoz got down the right again and his cross was turned in by Eze. VAR again had a look but this time the decision went the way of the visitors.

Whatever Postecoglou said at half-time failed to have the desired effect as Palace made it 2-0 almost immediately.

A swift counter led by Eze and Sarr saw the latter return the ball to the attacking midfielder and he made no mistake with a crisp finish.

Tottenham’s attempts at finding a way back into the game were half-hearted and Palace almost added a third in injury-time, Kinsky saving well to deny former Arsenal forward Eddie Nketiah.





Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *