Crystal Palace 2(3)-2(2) Liverpool: Oliver Glasner’s side taste victory at Wembley once more after last season’s heroics
Last season Oliver Glasner did the remarkable and guided Crystal Palace to a first trophy in 34 years after an impressive second half of the campaign. Not only did Palace deliver the final blow against one of the best sides in the Premier League in Pep Guardiola and Manchester City, they also did so when the Sky Blues were banking on the FA Cup trophy as their only redemption in an underwhelming season.
On Sunday Glasner and his Eagles returned to Wembley and dealt another blow to another one of the best sides in the league. The champions in fact. Palace started off slowly after Hugo Ekitike scored for Liverpool in the fourth minute, but they soon rallied and got back into the game after Virgil van Dijk gave away a penalty and Jean-Phillipe Mateta sent Alisson Becker the wrong way.
After that the game was more than equal, Palace matching Liverpool’s glitzy play with a disciplined and applaudable performance. At 44-56% possession, the Eagles did not give up control in the middle of the park, but they didn’t try too hard to play through it either.
None of that passing-out-of-the-back paraphernalia almost all 20 teams of the Premier League are keen on adopting. Instead, they sliced the ball through the middle of the pitch, hoping to get their excellent front three on it as often as possible.
And that they did, with Mateta, Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr continually getting the ball in very advanced and dangerous positions.
In one instance Mateta ran through on goal but the excellent Alisson rushed out and made a decisive tackle. Perhaps Mateta should have taken the shot rather than try to round arguably the best one-on-one goalkeeper in the world.
On another occasion, it was Sarr who collected the ball just inside the box and wove through a succession of Liverpool feet looking to get the shot away. It led to the penalty and Mateta’s equaliser.
After Liverpool had retaken the lead, it was similar quick forward passing that allowed Adam Wharton to quickly move the ball to Sarr, who found space and levelled for Palace again.
There is concern in some quarters that Liverpool may have just changed too much this summer. The club have added four new signings to a title-winning squad, five if you count goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, and the worry is that the new boys would need some time to gel.
If they do, it wasn’t on show at Wembley as Liverpool’s squad moved in sync like a giant machine of 11 interconnected parts, especially in the first half when they threatened to outplay Palace. Florian Wirtz danced around the pitch dictating proceedings. The German was a joy to watch, the way he stroked the ball in tight spaces, the intelligent give-and-gos, the clever passes that sent Liverpool streaming forward. It is clear he will star in many box-office performances from Slot’s side in coming months.
On the flanks the two new fullbacks Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong impressed, Kerkez playing somewhat conservatively while Frimpong was given licence to bomb down the right flank. In front, Hugo Ekitike settled like he had been a Red for two seasons, not two weeks.
The French striker opened his Liverpool account in only the fourth minute when he linked up with Wirtz on the left, collecting neatly at the edge of the box and then driving a low ball into the far corner past Henderson to leave Palace chasing the game.
For Liverpool’s second, Frimpong, in one of his dazzling runs up front, moved into space and tried to deliver a lofted cross into the penalty area, but there was some lucky inaccuracy and it veered into the top corner instead as Henderson flailed in vain.
At two-all there were no further breakthroughs as the match went to penalties. Salah opened the shootout with his second penalty miss out of two in pre-season, smashing the ball wildly over the bar. Then Henderson, who has an excellent penalty record, saved two and youngster Justin Devenny could seal Glasner’s second trophy with Palace.
