Crystal Palace secured their spot in the final of the Emirates FA Cup with a dominant win over Aston Villa on Saturday.
Eberechi Eze opened the scoring with a curled beauty past Emiliano Martínez just past the half-hour mark. Palace fan favourite Jean-Philippe Mateta had his chance to double Palace’s lead in the second half, but his penalty was taken poorly and struck the woodwork.
There was no need to fear for the Eagles as Ismaïla Sarr got Palace’s second with an emphatic finish and just before the conclusion of the tie, the forward bagged his second – and his team’s third – to deliver one final blow to Aston Villa.
As it happened
The opening minutes of the tie saw each team try their best to avoid conceding first — the only signs of fire came from Crystal Palace’s flares that shrouded Wembley Stadium in a thin veil of smoke.
20 minutes in, no real cutting edge quality had been shown, but two yellow cards had been. Aston Villa’s Boubacar Kamara and Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell entered referee Anthony Taylor’s book, having both stopped two promising attacks.
Morgan Rogers could have had the Villans ahead after everybody in the Palace backline failed to clear a floated cross, but his half volley bounced agonisingly past Dean Henderson’s far post.
Chris Richards’ searching ball found Mateta hot on the tail of Ezri Konsa. He managed to nick the ball from the centre-half and slot past Martínez, but he was deemed to have fouled the Englishman and the goal was quickly ruled out by VAR.
However, it didn’t take the Eagles long after the disallowed goal, as Sarr’s good work on the wing found Eze on the edge of the box, and he bent a fantastic, whipped effort away from the outreached glove of Martínez and into the top left corner, which sent Palace’s support into rapture.
Embed from Getty ImagesMateta continued to cause Konsa issues, this time out on the left wing. Palace’s Frenchman found himself isolated but made light work of Villa’s defender. His cross that followed found Sarr who leapt well, but his header was poor and flew over the bar.
It was then Villa’s turn to test their aerial ability. From a corner, Konsa was at the back post – his header much better than Sarr’s, down and aimed at the corner, but quick reactions from Henderson kept his effort out.
On the stroke of half-time, Mitchell should have doubled his team’s lead after more quick counter-attacking play down the right again from Sarr, who pulled his cross back to Mitchell inside the box. Were it not for a sloppy miskick, Villa would have had a much tougher task in the second half.
Unai Emery must have had some choice words for his players at the break, as they played with much more intent in the first five minutes of the second period, and were it not for some goalkeeping heroics again by Henderson, Lucas Digne’s fired volley from the edge of the box would have found the bottom right corner.
Despite that bright start, clumsy defending from Kamara saw him trip goal scorer Eze inside the penalty box. Up stepped Mateta who, face to face with Martínez, struck the outside of the right post and kept Villa in the game.
But it was only a matter of time before that second goal would come for Palace. Provider turned goal scorer when Senegalese winger Sarr fired from the edge of the 18-yard box, past Martínez, and into the bottom left corner. The Villa faithful were silenced; the goal made the tie feel as if it was only ending one way.
Embed from Getty ImagesDespite Wembley being shared equally between the two sets of fans, it felt as if Palace had control of the whole ground, fans and players alike.
Substitute Leon Bailey could have fired Aston Villa back into contention when struck a powerful volley into a crowded six-yard box, though his attempt unfortunately came off his own fallen player Pau Torres for a goal kick.
Despite Villa applying more pressure as the clock ran down, it could have been all but over for them. Daichi Kamada lifted a ball to the back post where yet again Sarr was – this header was much better than his first, but still missed the target as Martínez could only watch it go past the opposite post.
The closing stages of the match were to be expected, Villa held onto the ball while Palace were happy to sit back and defend with all they had. That said, Villa didn’t manage to test them as much as they would have liked, and deep into added time it was Sarr yet again to make it 3-0 to the Eagles.
That was very much the dagger in the contest, as Palace earned themselves a place in the Emirates FA Cup final, giving them a chance to win their first piece of major silverware in the club’s history.
The lineups
AVL: Martínez; Cash, Konsa, Torres, Digne; Kamara, Tielemans; Rogers, Asensio, McGinn; Watkins
CRY: Henderson; Munoz, Richards, Lacroix, Guéhi, Mitchell; Wharton, Kamada; Sarr, Eze, Mateta