A point at Palace is hard when every tackle is a penalty!

Match Report

Crystal Palace 2 v 2 AFCB

9 December 2017

Attendance: 24,823

AFCB take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

What a strange game this was. Bournemouth were well in control when a swiftly taken corner move from the training ground led to a clear shot for Jermain Defoe to open the scoring, and even when Wilfried Zaha was running at Bournemouth's defence Palace did not look like scoring. Unfortunately. Begovic wanted to make sure and Zaha won the penalty to get Palace in the game, while a second Palace goal from Scott Dann, who else - he always scores against AFCB - should have given Palace a half time lead, but Defoe's remarkable lofted chip made it 2-2 at the break. Bournemouth looked to have secured a point in injury time, but Zaha was up to his old tricks and Daniels almost lost the game with a last ditch tackle on him. Justice was done though when a greedy Benteke took the spot kick and Begovic saved it t leave the score 2-2.  

The Christmas spirit was going well at Selhurst Park
until the penalties started to get awarded.

Bournemouth only made one change with Steve Cook replacing the suspended Adam Smith, while Harry Artur made it back on the bench. 

Crystal Palace made three changes with Ward, Kelly ad McCarthy dropping out of the starting line up and Fosu-Mensah, Cabaye and Tomkins coming into the team.

There are more pictures on Match Day Gallery.

Bournemouth and Crystal Palace go all out for a win. 

Bournemouth were under pressure from the start with Jeffrey Schlupp firing over from distance. Benteke then had a chance at the near post but headed wide. 

Defoe did his best to get a header just wide of the target from a right wing cross, but after some good work from King to win a corner Defoe would get another chance. This time Surman took it short to Stanislas who played it back for Surman to pick out a centrally -laced Defoe who slotted past Seproni from about 12 yards to make it one-nil on 10 minutes. Josh King had illegally held Schlupp back from making a challenge but the referee had not seen and nor had I at the time.

Palace were undeterred with Benteke forcing a save from Begovic off his knew, before Aké made a strong block from Townsend. From the Palace corner Sakho missed almost a sitter on the line with Surman in attendance, but Bournemouth scrambled the ball away. 

King was working hard and almost got to Sakho at the back. Cabaye then made a great tackle on Defoe to deny him a striking chance when he was almost through. Sakho had played Defoe onside, because he was injured and had to be replaced by Scott Dann on 25 minutes. 

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Tomkins then fouled King and picked up a yellow card. Tomkins later had a shot from distance that went wide, even if the offside should have gone up earlier. Milivojevic then went in the book for chopping Fraser down. Stanislas almost broke through but Speroni came out quickly to deny a chance. Stanislas did get a shot off a moment later but it was deflected right at the keeper. 

The game to a big turn when a long ball was headed on by Benteke to Zaha to chase. While Akee looked to have got across, Begovic came out to make sure and Zaha went down. A penalty was awarded and Milivojevic stuck it away. Zaha left his leg trailing and looked like he was already going down before Begovic made contact.

It was only three minutes later when the game changed completely and a Palace corner  was kept alive by Benteke and then Cabaye who put a low cross in from the right and Scott Dann popped up at the far post to make it 2-1.

Bournemouth were rocked but as half time approached Lewis Cook put a speculative ball forward from half way towards Defoe who not only get their first, ahead of Scott Dann, but with one bounce looped his shot over Speroni and in to the top left corner to make it 2-2. It was an absolute beauty!

Half time dancing at Palace.

Second half
Bournemouth came out early and they soon had Palace on the back foot with Surman hitting a shot at Speroni. But Begovic soon also had to make a save from Rubens Loftus-Cheek.

Stanislas was starting to see more of the ball and had a shot deflected. He then found Defoe who shot wide just in front of Dann. Bournemouth were not getting the decisions at this point.

Howe changed things to bring Ibe on for Stanislas on 65 minute and Palace too Cabaye off and brought McArthur on. Ibe did his usual in running into trouble straight away, but a few moments later he had his head down and drilled a fierce shot that Speroni could only push away.

Lewis Cook then clipped Zaha and the Palace forward lost his cool and went for Lewis Cook. It was a yellow for Zaha.

Palace were getting closer when Benteke headed a free kick on to Scott Dann who shot over from six yards. Townsend was then subbed for Sakho to come on with 12 minutes to go. Ibe was fouled by McArthur who got booked before Callum Wilson replaced Defoe with 10 minutes left.

Benteke was then booked for a foul on Lewis Cook. Palace were still mounting a challenge and Loftus-Cheek has a low shot saved by Begovic at his left post. Ibe made a terrible mistake playing the ball back towards the D when he could have cleared, but Milivojevic finally put the chance wide.

Afobe replaced King for the last three minutes. The passing became more erratic and with five minutes of added time it was Bournemouth that were hanging on. A long ball up to Zaha had Steve Cook back peddling and while he blocked a first shot from the number 11, Daniels came in with a stronger challenge to put the ball out for what looked like a corner, but Kevin Friend pointed to the spot. I couldn't believe it and nor could the Bournemouth players as Daniels looked to have made a clean attempt to get the ball. Yet, on Match of the Day's replay we did see that Daniels had touched Zaha's foot first.

Benteke was not the appointed penalty taker but he stepped up anyway having not scored all season. So it was something he'll have to explain when he saw his spot kick saved by Begovic, low to his right.


Bournemouth were not finished. They even had a shout for a penalty themselves after Wilson tried to get a shot off in the box and Schlupp had his hands up that blocked the shot.

Match line up for AFCB.

Summary
Palace possibly deserved one penalty, but two was a rather fortunate for them. Bournemouth's players were adamant that neither should have been a penalty kick, but you are not going to win every decision when you make last ditch challenges in the box. Zaha knows to go down when he feels the challenge and he was impressive in playing the victim. But Bournemouth's defenders know he would do that, and getting into those situations in the first place is the thing that should concern Howe. Still, Bournemouth showed some good moments and Defoe finally showed us how he is a goalscorer that only needs a slight chance to get his goals. While three points would have been handy from this game, it is a good point against an improving Palace side.

AFCB escape with a draw.

Bournemouth players surround the referee after the match.

AFCB Ratings
Begovic 8, Francis 5, S Cook 6, Aké 6, Daniels 6, Fraser 6, L Cook 7, Surman 7, Stanislas 6, King 7, Defoe 9

Crystal Palace
Speroni, Fosu-Mensah, Tomkins, Sakho (Dann), Schlupp, Townsend (Sako), Cabaye (McArthur), Milivojevic (Loftus-Cheek), Zaha, Benteke

Palace Subs

Hennessey, van Aanholt, Dann, McArthur, Sako, Kelly, Puncheon

Referee Watch: Kevin Friend 2/10 - Far too many free kicks and penalties awarded. It was a well contested game but seven yellow cards was excessive and players were winning free kicks for just hitting the ground - unfortunately, Zaha did most of his falling over in AFCB's penalty box.