Frank Lampard speaks!
Read Barney Ronay's match report
Righto, I’m afraid I have to nip off now, but the report will be here presently – do check back for it. Otherwise, here’s what we’ve got going on right now, with Spurs v West Ham to come. Not bad eh?
Ta-ra!
Full-time: Crystal Palace 4-0 Everton
Palace are going to Wembley! They join Chelsea in the last four, and look a serious threat, solid at the back and with the confidence and creativity to beat anyone. Everton, not so much.
90 min There’ll be two added minutes. Seems a long time since Everton were dominating the opening 20, but that’s how it goes when you’re struggling: you can start well, but as soon as things go against you, you collapse.
90 min Ally McCoist gives Gallagher man of the match. I’d’ve gone for Olise, but can’t quibble too much.
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88 min Yup, it’s a goal! Everton did not need this, at all, but Palace are really, really good.
88 min There’s a check for handball against Gallagher, but I’m sure the goal is fine; he didn’t control with an arm.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 4-0 Everton (Hughes 88)
It’s a kicking! Edouard drives towards the box and cracks a pass into Gallagher, to spins on it adroitly, using the pace of it and his turn to lash a low shot that Pickford shoves out ... but only as far as Hughes, pushing on, and he finishes high into the net!
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86 min Gallagher sticks the free-kick into the box and Godfrey heads behind.
85 min Edouard finds Benteke, then Zaha tries some trickery down the right and Gordon’s had enough, tripping him then, when that doesn’t stop him, pulling him down.
83 min Two changes for Palace, Hughes and Benteke replacing Kouyate and Olise, who’s been the best player on the pitch – and by far.
83 min Ah, Everton. Again, Calvert-Lewin holds up well, Gray breaking ono the ball that’s teed-up for him, only to pass a tame effort that Butland saves easily enough.
81 min Tell you what, no one left in this competition will fancy meeting Palace next. They are buzzing, and rightly so.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 3-0 Everton (Zaha 79)
Palace are going to Wembley! Zaha does really well down the left, weaving and fighting through two challenges, looking for feed Edouard but overhitting his square pass so that it reaches Oliseh, wider inside the box; he shoots, against his own leg I think, and the ball loops up, flies into the far post, cracks it in the face, and drops perfectly for Zaha to sidefoot home! This is over!
78 min But have a look! Zaha tricks inside Godfrey, tying his feet up; Godfrey collapses, Zaha takes another touch, should shoot ... takes another touch ... and Holgate makes a decent challenge.
77 min Everton are coming! Richarlison finds Gordon, who knocks off a perfectly-weighted ball into the path of the overlapping Gray ... but his cross is collected by a sprawling Pickford.
76 min Better again from Everton, the ball moving through Docure, Richarlison and Calvert-Lewin, but Iwobi’s eventuating cross is behind the latter and Kenny’s subsequent effort goes results in a goalkick.
74 min Iwobi replaces Coleman, and I’m a little surprised at that: though Iwobi is an attacker who scored a key winner in midweek, Coleman’s crosses have been Everton’s biggest threat – an admittedly relative term.
73 min Nice from Palace, Zaha flicking inside for Edouard, who moves out wide for Oliseh when the ball won’t sit up for a shot, and his young mate sends an effort wide.
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72 min Gray spreads to Coleman, who takes a touch, steadies, and picks out Richarlison at the far post. He might nod across, but instead goes for goal, getting right under an effort that Butland seizes. Everton, though, are in the ascendancy.
71 min Vieira opts to freshen things up, removing Eze, who’s not quite there yet, and Mateta; Milivojevic and Edouard come on.
69 min Michael Olise is going to the top and here he is again, shouldering away from Holgate and easing down the line, before wearing the inevitable foul.
68 min Calvert-Lewin is starting to influence proceedings, showing for the ball and bringing others into play. I’m not totally sold on him as a top-level player, but Everton are so much better with him in the team.
67 min Better from Everton, a nice touch from Coleman finding Calvert-Lewin, who finds Gray, and he spins Kouyate beautifully then, on the turn, lashes an early shot that flies just wide of the far post. Everton have been a little bit better these last few minutes.
66 min “I am sure that Gary Naylor will concur and recall from his Merseyside days that the voice of Clive Tydesley is etched in the psyche of Liverpool and Everton fans alike,” says Ian Copestake. “Or at least those of us who used to get their footballing fix in the 1980s onwards by tuning in to Radio City and hearing Clive cut his teeth as the station’s commentator.”
64 min Olise has been great today, and collecting the ball just outside his own box, he skates around Gomes, wears the foul, and Gomes is booked. Like Gordon, he too will miss any semi in which Everton find themselves. Don’t laugh.
63 min ...which he does, but Calvert-Lewin heads clear, then Olise, sprinting to press Gordon, knocks him over.
62 min A lovely touch from Gallagher sets Olise away down the right, so Gordon yanks him down and is booked; he’ll be suspended for the semi, should Everton get there. Oliseh’s dead-ball delivery has been on-point today, and he now has another chance to swerve in from the right...
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61 min But here they come now, Coleman eschewing a chance to stick a ball into the mixer; eventually Holgate does so from the other side, and Butland collects easily enough.
60 min A quiet period, which is fine for Palace. Everton can’t get enough of the ball to exert any pressure, but know that if they can finagle a goal, even if there are just a few minutes left, they’re in with a chance.
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58 min Calvert-Lewin goes over Kouyate, who looks winded but fine. And tangentially, how great was this? Football!
This was great to see from Crystal Palace as Cheikhou Kouyaté returned to training as an AFCON champion…🥇👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/0lxSiC686F
— TEAMtalk (@TEAMtalk) February 15, 2022
56 min It’s great to hear Clive Tydesley commentating on a big game, as it is baffling how rarely that happens. He’s miles better than the majority of those we hear on a regular – him, Peter Drury and Steve Wilson are the only ones who bring any personality to it, for mine.
55 min Palace are just miles better than Everton. A few moments ago, Olise tried to beat Holgate with a flick down the line, and though it didn’t work, it showed greater skill and daring than anything have attempted in quite some time.
54 min “I think if Everton go down there’s a better than even chance we don’t come back up, let alone ‘bowl around’ the Championship,” tweets Robin Cannon. “Bad, overpriced squad, best players would leave, owner’s money based on links with sanctioned Russian oligarch … not promising.”
Maybe, but I’d be surprised. But I bet most Wigan fans still wouldn’t swap the cup to still be in the Prem.
52 min Lovely feet from Zaha earn Palace a corner, but this time Guehi can’t retreat enough to get the power he needs on his header. Laugh at me if I’m wrong, but Everton look gone here.
51 min “Do donkey jackets now come with a permanent soundtrack of the Only Fools and Horses theme tune,” wonders Ian Copestake, “or is this only happening inside my head?”
Or “Nisi stulti et equi,” as Lampard calls it.
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49 min Michael Olise allez allez! He wriggles around and through a pair of tackles inside the box – his ability to commit defenders is brilliant – earning a corner, which he again delivers wickedly. Nothing comes of it, though, and when the ball comes back, he’s pulled fractionally offside.
47 min “I agree,” says Dean Kinsella. “So much to enjoy with this Palace team. Bucketloads of skill, enthusiasm and work rate – even the star players. And it really does look like Vieira is going to be a top top manager.”
I guess for most managers, it’s more about finding a job that’s right for them because only the best succeed everywhere. Palace seem perfect for Vieira.
46 min We go again. Everton send on Calvert-Lewin for Kenny.
Decide for yourselves:
Crystal Palace take the lead, against the run of play ⚽️
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) March 20, 2022
What a week for Marc Guehi! An England call up and now an FA Cup Quarter Final goal 👏#ITVFootball | #EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/w7WIofunxL
Breathing space! 🌬@CPFC double their lead, through a beautifully worked goal 🔴🔵
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) March 20, 2022
Is there any way back for @Everton now?#ITVFootball | #EmiratesFACup | #CRYEVE pic.twitter.com/5jKjHDrRlf
Looking at the goals, it was Richarlison who lost Guehi, leaving him from the corner; Leicester are the only team to have conceded more set-piece goals than Everton this season. Wrighty, meanwhile, doesn’t blame Pickford for the second, but I’m not sure – the finish wasn’t in corner, and he might’ve dived over it.
Half-time entertainment: a classic from the archives.
Half-time: Crystal Palace 2-0 Everton
Everton started well, but lost momentum when Townsend got injured and Palace’s superior confidence and class is now telling.
45+2 min Palace should make it three! A lovely cushioned header from Olise sends Mateta in, but when he should shoot he takes a touch, allowing Coleman to slide in and unload him. Great challenge, but should never have smelled it.
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45 min There’ll be four added minutes. There should be more, but you just never get what you should get, especially prior to half-time. The single most significant change we should make to the game is 30 minutes ball-in-play time, with control over it taken away from refs. How quickly you can, for example, run into the net to wrestle the ball from a goalkeeper, Brian McClair-style, should not have an impact on the result of a football match.
Brian McClair just picking up the ball pic.twitter.com/q2QDcUETrS
— Bryan’s Gunn (@bryansgunn) March 19, 2022
43 min It’s worth noting that Richarlison opted not to finish with his left foot, making things hard for himself and getting nowhere, then 30 seconds later, Mateta relied on his because it was the right thing to do, and now look!
GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-0 Everton (Mateta 41)
This is a lovely goal! On halfway, Zaha controls beautifully and sends Eze away down the line, collecting the return-pass before crossing low for the onrushing Mateta to use its direction to sweep across Pickford and towards the far corner! Perhaps the keeper should do better, perhaps, but that’s a beautifully-worked goal.
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40 min Nice again from Everton, Coleman doing superbly to ease out of defence before lofting a pass over the top for Richarlison, who outpaces Guehi, allows it to drop across his body, and uses the outside of his right foot to shoot when really he might’ve lashed it with his left. Still, decent effort though it’s fielded easily enough by Butland.
39 min Kenny loops one over the top for Richarlison, but Kouyate sees him and it out, just.
37 min If Palace can hang onto their best players this summer and go at the market again, they could do some serious damage next season. Never has there been as many talented players in the world as now, and the richest clubs can’t stockpile them all.
36 min ...but Godfrey heads Kenny’s delivery wide.
35 min Gallagher is the latest to foul Kenny, who’s having a rough afternoon. His ankles will have some colour to them, and following the free-kick, Everton win a corner...
33 min Here come Palace again, Mateta running in behind from centre to right and collecting a decent long hump from Clyne before drilling a low cross towards the near post ... and Zaha is paying more attention than Godfrey, sprinting onto the ball to turn a first-time shot just wide of the near post. That’s a warning for Everton.
32 min Gray directs the free-kick towards Holgate at the back post, but the flag is up for offside.
31 min I’ve been banging on about Palace’s attacking thrust, but they’ve got plenty at the back too. Mitchell, who’s just booted Gordon, is a very promising young player, while Guehi and Andersen are physical, solid and intelligent.
30 min Yeah, Palace are taking control of this one.
28 min You fear for Everton now. It’s all very well starting nicely, but when confidence is fragile, it doesn’t take much to eliminate it and refresh deep-set insecurities. Meantime, Gomes flashes a shot wide of the near post; Butland dives, but he knew it wasn’t going on.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-0 Everton (Guehi 26)
This is so easy, another nasty corner swerved in by Olise that Guehi flicks across Pickford and inside the far post! Everton’s fast start has earned them the princely reward of absolutely nothing!
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25 min A poor pass from Gallagher sets Olise away down the right, the winger doing a terrific job of getting his left foot outsider the ball to keep it on, skirting around Gomes who concedes a corner ... that yields another, Olise with the gumption to have a dig direct from the flag that Pickford can only force around his near post...
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24 min Thinking more about Everton’s approach here, I’m sure Lampard will be wanting his players to keep the ball away from their defence to the maximum possible extent. He’s gone for the safety in numbers of five at the back, but won’t want to invite pressure.
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22 min Andre Gomes is putting himself about, and when his high foot catches Gallagher in the head as Gallagher nods the ball away from him. He’s penalised, but somehow avoids a booking.
20 min First bit of Palace: Kenny controls beautifully then loses possession, allowing Zaha to punch a pass into Eze ... who turns well and shoots wide. A serious cup-tie is brewing.
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18 min “I caught the 2nd half of the Everton-Newcastle game,” emails Mac Millings, “and the atmosphere felt positively. .. I believe the preferred word is ‘febrile’, and that was *before* the Allan sending off. When the goal went in (and what a good goal it was), the sudden switch from fury to euphoria was intoxicating. Or it would have been, but, speaking as a Watford supporter, it was (with apologies to Gary Naylor, Matt Burtz, Mary Waltz, and all Students of Science) something closer to gut-wrenching. Stupid bloody football, I love it and hate it so much.”
Yup, it was a good one – even for the neutral, as in terms of relative fun, Everton are the preferred relegation candidates.
17 min Yup, Townsend is off the stretcher but also off to the dressing room, helped by club staff; Gray, who started the season so well before losing form, is on.
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15 min Ach, Townsend is carried off. He’s still being treated, but the likelihood is that Gray will soon replace him.
13 min Lampard’s use of full-backs with wide players in front is working well so far, but oh dear: Coleman beats Mitchell bear the corner flag, then Townsend charges across to pick up the loose ball and treads awkwardly, collapsing in a heap. That’s a right sair yin, and though I hope the physios can get him going again, I’m not sure.
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11 min On Richarlison, I thought he’d be further along now than he is. He’s got a lot of the raw materials, but hasn’t quite converted them into what the Talmud calls tachlis: perceptible contributions.
10 min I guess what Palace lack is a player to put a foot on it midfield, and as I type that, Everton’s harrying wins them a free-kick out on the right. Richarlison is first to show for it too, but can only direct his near-post header wide.
8 min Palace have barely left their own half – Everton are into this.
7 min Gordon, who’s a talent, turns on a bouncing ball and spins away from Kouyate – that’s lovely – then twinkles through midfield and slides a ball in behind for Richarlison, who catches himself on Guehi, seeking a penalty. All he gets is an offside flag.
6 min Townsend curls to the back post where Holgate, underneath it, takes the ball away from the much better-placed Doucoure, heading over the top.
4 min Excellent start from Everton, Gomes hauling Zaha down and getting away with it; it yields a corner, then another! Everton have started like the clappers here!
3 min It’s all going on! A heavy touch from Guehi has him lunging in, facing his own goal, to try and rob the onrushing Richarlison. And he gets away with it, just, Richarlison’s touch not heavy enough to see him clear so the tackle gets just enough of the ball before clattering the man. This is a promising start.
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2 min Everton win a free-kick out on the left and Townsend swings it in ... and Keane is onto it! I think he’s offside, but he swivels into a shot that dribbles wide and, sliding in at the far post, Kenny can’t quite catch up with it.
1 min The away end watched Wogan – they’re singing the 1985 tune, though the 1995 one was alright too.
1 min Aaaaand off we go!
The players take the knee, Zaha aside. All black lives matter.
Who can think of Palace in the cup without reliving one of the greatest ties of them all? In many ways, this match – along with Oldham v Man United just after it – revolutionised football: it was too good for so little of it to be available on live telly.
There’s a decent atmosphere at Selhurst, and here come the teams!
Vieira tells ITV he’s happy with his players, who are working hard and just need to focus on performance. Eze, he says, has been waiting for his chance so this is it, and more generally, he thinks this is a 50-50 game so his players need to be at it.
I’m really looking forward to seeing how Marc Guehi gets on today. He’s made it into Gareth Southgate’s most recent England squad - on which point, how on earth has Jack Grealish’s form got him in ahead of Jadon Sancho, to say nothing of Hazza Maguire – and looks to have all the attributes. I daresay playing alongside Joachim Andersen, another excellent Vieira signing, is helping too.
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Email! “I’m only 40,” emails Matt Burtz, “haven’t been supporting Everton for all my life (only about the last 10 years), and don’t dare to speak for the entire fan base, but as much as Everton need a trophy, this is a club that has been in the top flight continuously since 1954. No club is too big to go down, obviously, but I think many would take survival and not winning the Cup over the reverse. Selfishly, it would be much harder for me to watch their games in the Championship, FWIW.”
Sure, nothing is uniform. But the way I see it, Everton go down, their fans get a season bowling about the Championship with games reliably on Saturday and Tuesday, get themselves promoted, and still have the take of when their team won the cup to sustain them. That sounds a lot more fun that another year of the almost-same – but obviously my sensibilities are not universal.
Also on Lampard’s selection, I should also note that both Dele Alli and Donny van de Beek are cuptied.
Lampard, wearing some kind of donkey jacket, says he hopes his team take the impetus from Thursday night, but that they also need to freshen up. Begovic would’ve played had he not been ill, but Pickford is back from illness, so comes in. Calvert-Lewin, on the bench here, had a small reaction from his sub appearance in midweek – not an injury – but with international break coming, should be good to go after that.
People have been cancelled for admitting less, but I’ve quite enjoyed the shifting of round five to midweek. A night-game automatically amps up the atmosphere, and much as I enjoy a replace or a second replay, getting it all finished on the night gives its own dramatic impetus. Semis and finals, though, should get a second game.
As noted by Karen Carney in the link above, Conor Gallagher has a decision to make in the summer. I wonder if Chelsea will be able to offer him enough games to keep him happy – they should find a way if they can – because if they can’t, he might feel obliged to leave. I’m sure Palace would fancy having him another year, but they also want to build, and there might be teams above them who fancy investing in the return of the midfielder who just plays in the middle of the pitch.
And for balance, Ian Wright is now talking about his incredible contribution to the 1990 cup final, also noting that after Palace lost the replay, Bryan Robson told him he’d be back. He was.
More recently – Thursday night recently – this was brilliant. Football!
Electric. Stunning.
— Adam Jones (@Adam_Jones94) March 17, 2022
Sound ON for the full time scenes after that #EFC win pic.twitter.com/r5e9jJOPpb
Of course, for the old gits among us, it’s impossible to conceive of Everton in the FA Cup without immediately conceiving on 1985’s seminal Wogan appearance.
As for Everton, ITV think they’re playing 3-4-3 and maybe they are. But my guess is that they’re more circumspect than that, with Townsend and Gordon staying wide and protecting their full-backs before they think about supporting Richarlison. In terms of personnel, Jordan Pickford replaces Asmir Begovic in net, while Andre Gomes, Jonjoe Kenny and Andros Townsend also start in place of Allan, Alex Iwobi and Demarai Gray.
Ian Wright has rightly been installed as a national treasure in recent times, but it is nevertheless incumbent upon me to advise that he’s wearing an olive syoot with a black cap of the sort worn when goalies were “custodians”, and black shoes. Strength and comfort to us all at this difficult time.
Tell you what, that Palace front six is seriously tasty. Michael Olise looks an absolute player, Conor Gallagher is special, Eze is beautiful on the ball – and we’ve not even mentioned Wilfried Zaha. It’s hard not to fancy them.
So what does it all mean? Well, Patrick Vieira makes two changes to the side so impressive against City: in net, Jack Butland might’ve now established himself as first choice, and he takes over from Vicente Guaita, while in midfield, Eberechi Eze, still feeling his way back after a nasty achilles injury, replaces Jeffrey Schlupp.
Teams!
Crystal Palace (a modern 4-3-3-): Butland; Clyne, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Kouyate, Gallagher, Eze; Olise, Mateta, Zaha. Subs: Guaita, Ward, Tomkins, Kelly, Milivojevic, Riedewald, Hughes, Edouard, Benteke.
Everton (a desperate 5-4-1): Pickford; Coleman, Holgate, Godfrey, Keane, Kenny; Townsend. Doucoure, Gomes, Gordon; Richarlison. Subs: Lonergan, Tyrer, Patterson, Calvert-Lewin, Gray, Iwobi, Mykolenko, Branthwaite, Price.
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Preamble
Let’s start with some trivia: what is unique about Wigan Athletic in 2013? And what has only been done by Manchester City in 1926, Leicester City in 1969, Brighton & Hove Albion in 1983, Middlesbrough in 1997 and Portsmouth in 2010?...
...
...Wigan are the only team to have won the FA Cup and been relegated in the same season, while the others were losing finalists who were relegated. I daresay a significant majority of Everton fans Evertonians, without a trophy since 1995, would take the former just as alacritously as so many Wiganers did, and why not? A day to remember forever, immortalised in the annals of humanity, rather than another season of nondescript nothingness in a league that has passed them by. The suits might feel differently, but that’s just another part of what makes it all so appealing.
Perhaps, though, Thursday night’s gloriously absurd win over Palace represents a momentum shift: Everton stay up easily and win the Cup too, the football world flabbergasted by the full flowering of Frank’s managerial genius. Perhaps.
Palace, meanwhile, have their own tale of woe they’d like to assuage, reaching two finals, in 1990 and 2016, only to be beaten in both by poor Manchester United sides – to say nothing of Alan Pardew’s dancing. OK, to say something of it, for it remains extremely amusing. But they’re an entirely different proposition these days, a young, dynamic and enterprising outfit with the firepower to trouble anyone, who just this week were solid enough to restrict Man City to nil. This is a chance for then they know it.
Or, put another way, what should be a terrific cup-tie awaits us. Here we go, here we go, here we go!
Kick-off: 12.30pm GMT
