Palace Stun Liverpool With Excellent Anfield Victory

Even the most fervent Eagles fan is unlikely to have predicted that the visitors would take a point from Anfield let alone all three, but Oliver Glasner set up his side perfectly who responded with a superb win.

MATCH INFORMATION

• 2pm – 14th April 2024
• Liverpool 0-1 Crystal Palace
• Anfield, Anfield Road, Liverpool L4 0TH

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 5 James TOMKINS, 29 Naouirou AHAMADA, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 52 David OZOH

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 2 Joe GOMEZ, 38 Ryan GRAVENBERCH, 82 Caoimhin KELLEHER, 78 Jarell QUANSAH

TEB VERDICT               

The Eagles took advantage of disappointing recent results for the hosts by taking the game to them at Anfield, going in at the break with a deserved lead. In truth, the lead should probably been more particularly after Mateta would have scored had it not been for a last ditch clearance off the line. However, that does not do justice as to how well Palace played in the opening 45 minutes.

As for the second, with chances few and far between to double the lead, it ended up being a defensive master class with every single player putting their body on the line for the cause with tackles, blocks and doing what they needed to do to preserve the lead, which they did.

It was of course wonderful to see Olise back in the starting line up and playing his part as did Eze, and while there were several excellent performances both Wharton and Hughes in the middle, along with Lerma and Andersen at the back were immense.

A big three points which takes the pressure off. Who would have thought that little old Palace would have a say in the title race, eh?

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“It’s an outstanding win at Anfield, it’s so difficult to win here. How they played, especially in the first half, is so nice to see. In the second half, there was a lot of pressure from Liverpool. Congratulations to the team on this performance. It’s what we always talk about. Tomorrow we can say we did it our way, you can always lose here, but it’s about being able to express yourself and play with confidence. We cleared many situations under pressure with one/two touch. We scored an amazing goal. it’s about confidence, team spirit, passion.”

DEAN HENDERSON

“Coming to places like this, you know you’re going to be busy. I’m delighted to be back this time around, it’s a team effort, I’m delighted. The amount of blocks, passes across, blocks. They made save after save for me, I had to make saves as well.

I felt like I was out there for about a year, we rode our luck at times but I’m delighted. I think the lads believed we could do something on the coach today, the pressure was on them. If we play our stuff and once bodies come back, with what the manager has got us doing, we will be playing good stuff.

I feel good this time around, I feel fit and I’ve got a smile on my face.”

JURGEN KLOPP

“The stats in the first half won’t be as great as the stats in the second half. I think that was pretty obvious we didn’t play a good first half. We wanted a reaction and we saw a reaction.

It wasn’t a fully convinced team on the pitch. It’s a really difficult one. We weren’t great. Palace had far too many football moments where we ran in the wrong direction. In more than 20 years when you watch my teams, the press and counter press is pretty good, some days it is outstanding. In the first half, it was nothing and then we were 1-0 down.

Second half, we tried to change the formation and dynamic that wasn’t tricky for Palace. You could stand here on another day and see the same balls go in and we’re talking about a 4-1 win, but football doesn’t work like that.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES

21/04/24 West Ham United – Premier League (3pm)

24/04/24 Newcastle United – Premier League (8pm)

27/04/24 Fulham – Premier League (3pm)