March 24 2005

Aki Riihilahti

Aki Riihilahti admitted "the sun is shining much better outside the treatment room" after the Finn capped his return from injury with a goal at Stamford Bridge, by Stuart Pink and Neil McSteen.

The 28-year-old netted his fourth goal of the season to put the Eagles back on level terms, but saw his side's hopes of pulling off an upset quickly disposed of by the soon to be crowned Premiership champions.

Riihilahti said: "I'm not happy with the result because first of all, it wasn't a 4-1 game, but when you play against a class side and at 2-1 we were much, much more in the game, what they do well is that as soon as you think you are in the game they can just counter-attack and score from nowhere.

"I don't think they caused us too many problems, obviously at the end when we had to open up the game, but they're a quality side."

After draws against Arsenal and Manchester United, the midfielder admitted his side went in with the belief they could cause an upset, but Chelsea were just too strong for the Eagles.

Riihilahti said: "We knew we were going to cause them some problems, but we knew as well for us it was crucial to defend well and we had a good game plan.

"It worked in the first half and I think we made it hard for them, but when they got the second goal we had to open it up a bit and it was always going to be harder for us."

The Finn is now looking forward to Palace's games with their relegation rivals.

Riihilahti added: "With eight games to go you can say that the season really starts, we have planned for everything and now we are ready.

"Four home games, four away games, you can't play harder games than this.

"But I'm very confident and what is better than to have this kind of highlight for the season, that's why you play football."

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