Aston Villa vs Crystal Palace. Carabao Cup Fourth Round.
Villa Park.
Report and free match highlights as goals from Eberechi Eze and Daichi Kamada earn Crystal Palace a 2-1 win over Aston Villa in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup at Villa Park; Oliver Glasner's Palace will now play Arsenal away in the quarter-final
Wednesday 30 October 2024 22:52, UK
Crystal Palace won 2-1 against Aston Villa at Villa Park to secure their spot in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.
Eberechi Eze's early header was cancelled out by Jhon Duran's equaliser but substitute Daichi Kamada capitalised on Diego Carlos' error to win it and vindicate Oliver Glasner's decision to name such a strong Palace starting line-up.
It came at some cost with Eze and Adam Wharton both trudging off the field in the first half having suffered injuries, but the victory builds on their weekend win over Tottenham ahead of what is a significant showdown against Wolves on Saturday Night Football.
Unai Emery welcomed Tyrone Mings and Boubacar Kamara back to the starting line-up - Mings appearing for the first time in 445 days - and they were among the better performers. But other fringe players failed to show that they deserved more minutes.
Leon Bailey and Emiliano Buendia looked well short of their best, while Jaden Philogene struggled. There was shock at Villa Park on Saturday when Bournemouth scored an unexpected equaliser late on but it was boos that greeted the final whistle this time.
Credit to Palace for that. They twice took the lead, playing with greater fluency than their hosts and seemingly buoyed by that home win over Spurs. Momentum, finally, is with them and the reward is that they are now two rounds away from a Wembley final.
Glasner described it as "too early" to say whether Eze will be available for the Premier League game against Wolves on Saturday. "It was a problem with his hamstring so I do not know how serious it is but a muscle is never the best injury that you can get."
He added: "I hope that it is not too serious but I do not know."
The prognosis for Wharton is a little better because it is a problem the midfielder has been managing for some time. "I am more positive because it is nothing new," Glasner added. "He had this groin problem for weeks and months now."
Asked if he had any regrets about the decision to make 10 changes to the Villa starting line-up, Emery was emphatic about his selection. "Of course, we are frustrated, but if we repeat this match 100 times I am playing with the same players," he insisted.
"We started with 11 players in the squad of the first team. We started with Tyrone Mings, with Diego Carlos, and they can play normally in the starting line-up against Bayern Munich. We started with Boubacar Kamara, John McGinn, Leon Bailey…"
Emery went on to name much of the team and emphasised that it was a chance for players returning from injury or searching for form to gain minutes and confidence. But Villa supporters may still question the absence of the star names from the bench.
Might 15 minutes of Ollie Watkins, Morgan Rogers and Youri Tielemans been enough to sneak an equaliser and win this on penalties? That is something that Emery and Villa will never know. The wait for a first major trophy since 1996 looks set to go on.
