Roy Hodgson will have wondered what his return to Crystal Palace would feel like. A winning goal with the last kick of the game ensured it was about as jubilant a moment as the 75-year-old manager has surely ever experienced in his long career.
Palace greeted their returning boss with one of their strongest performances of the season and their first win of 2023, yet the football they played threatened to become somewhat inconsequential when Wilfried Zaha hobbled off just before the break with a groin injury that could threaten both his season and the club’s Premier League survival.
Hodgson took in rapturous applause before kick-off, as he walked to his dugout past a fanbase who love him, and who trust him to ensure their top-flight status ticks over to an 11th consecutive year.
Then, once the whistle had blown, Palace were off — frantically chasing down lethargic Leicester, creating chances, dominating the ball. Cheick Doucoure almost scored from a corner when he cannoned the ball into the grasp of goalkeeper Daniel Iversen.
It was the first of 11 shots that Palace would fire in the first 24 minutes at Selhurst Park. At the break, by which time Zaha, Joachim Andersen and others had all tried their luck, they had taken 20 efforts on goal to Leicester’s none. Still it was goalless.
But a minute before the break, Zaha went down unchallenged. The Ivorian was the undisputed talisman of Hodgson’s Palace team between 2017 and 2021 — he remains Palace’s talisman — but injured his groin here. The physios entered the pitch, but soon they were helping him off. Hodgson will be praying it isn’t serious. He needs Zaha between now and the end of May.
Leicester, typically, took the lead after the break when both of the wing-backs combined nicely and Ricardo Pereira, the substitute, fired into the top corner superbly.
Palace struck back within three minutes. Eberechi Eze’s wondrous free-kick crashed down from the crossbar but crept over the line via Iversen’s backside.
Palace grew in confidence, ensuring Pereira’s goal for Leicester was a mere blip in an otherwise stellar Eagles performance. Then Hodgson replaced tiring striker Odsonne Edourard with Jean-Philippe Mateta, who had one goal all season. Jordan Ayew slipped Mateta in, and the Frenchman finished past Iversen.
It was the last kick of the match. Soon enough Hodgson and his trusty assistant Ray Lewington were punching the air and cheering fervently. What a homecoming.
