Palace pick Wolves apart

March 5 2022

Wilfried Zaha slots away his penalty to give Palace a 2-0 lead

Two goals in the first half were enough for Crystal Palace to defeat Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.

The Eagles looked dangerous from the off, with the combination of Jean-Philippe Mateta, Michael Olise and Wilfried Zaha causing Wolves all kind of problems.

The visitors were ahead on 19 minutes when Conor Gallagher played a superb pass to Zaha, who managed to cross the ball to Mateta, and the Frenchman scrambled the ball home.

Just after the half hour mark Palace doubled their lead after Jeffrey Schlupp was up-ended by Max Kilman in the box, and Zaha converted the subsequent spot kick.

The Eagles pressed for further goals in the first half to extend their lead - both Gallagher and Olise tested Jose Sa from range.

In the second half, Wolves pressed for a goal but the Palace defence stayed firm. Vicente Guaita, back in the Palace side for the first time since the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea in February, did well to deal with efforts from Daniel Podence and Chiquinho to keep them at bay.

After the game Eagles boss Patrick Vieira told Sky Sports: "It was a really good performance. From the first minute to the last one we played well, worked hard and I'm really pleased.

"We were brave from the first minute, we defended higher, we put them under pressure, we played forward, we created chances and the first half was one of the best since I've been here.

"In the second half, we got a little bit tired. In the last 20, 30 minutes it was difficult to get out of our own half but we rolled our sleeves up and defended well. I'm really pleased about the character and personality we showed. We knew that we were going to go through a difficult period in the second half and we managed it really well.

"It's just about keeping the momentum and demanding, the players have been responding well. We want to improve as a team. We played well lately but what we were missing was the win and we managed to have the win today."

Palace: Guaita, Clyne, Andersen, Guéhi, Mitchell, Gallagher, Kouyaté (Milivojevic, 69), Schlupp, Olise (Hughes, 82), Mateta (Benteke, 69), Zaha

Subs not used: Butland, Ayew, Eze, Édouard, Kelly, Riedewald

Wolves: Malheiro de Sá, Kilman (Tomás Oliveira, 79), Coady, Saïss, Hoever (Castro Otto, 25), Neves, João Moutinho, Marçal, Neto (Jiménez, 63), Hwang Hee-Chan, Podence

Subs not used: Aït-Nouri, Machado Trincão, Boly, Fábio Silva, Ruddy, Dendoncker