Wilfried Zaha says that Crystal Palace have the best fans in the country and added he was excited by what was in store for the club in the future.
The Ivorian winger scored his tenth goal of the season for the Eagles on Sunday as his side progressed to the semi-finals of the FA Cup after a 4-0 hammering of Everton at Selhurst Park. Zaha has now hit double figures for goals in a single campaign for just the third time in his career and looks nailed on to improve on his tally of 11 that he finished with last year.
His goal against the Toffees on the weekend was met with a huge roar from the home fans, with the strike effectively killing off any hopes from the visitors that they might claw themselves back into the game. Palace fans have a strong reputation across the country for their raucous support and Zaha admitted at full-time there’s no crowd quite like the Selhurst Park crowd.
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“I’ve always said that Palace fans are probably the best fans that I’ve seen because they cheer you no matter what,” he told Palace TV. “I’m glad that we can bring them to Wembley. The team is proving how good it is. Some of the players haven’t played together for long. It just shows what is in store for the club, for the players that sign, what’s in store for the future. It’s good to be involved in it – it’s good to be going to Wembley as well.”
Palace boss Patrick Vieira echoed Zaha’s thoughts on the home crowd and admitted the noise that engulfed Selhurst Park from all four corners of the ground took him by surprise.
“It’s a wonderful day – a fantastic day for the football club,” he said. “The noise! Everybody is really excited. You always think about it [the atmosphere], and you always think that you know, but when you get there you start to think: ‘This is what it’s all about.’
“There is a really good vibe around the football club, and we really wanted to go to Wembley because I think the fans deserve that trip because of how they have supported us. We are there, now we have to enjoy it.”
Goals from Marc Guehi and Jean-Philippe Mateta put the Eagles on their way to the semi-finals during the first half before Zaha and Will Hughes added a deserved gloss to the scoreline later on in the second half.
The Eagles have now lost just one game out of their last 10 in all competitions, although that did come against Chelsea - the side they’ll come up against in April's semi-final. Palace will be able to take some comfort from that match, however, as they managed to keep the European and Club World Cup champions at bay for almost the entire 90 minutes before conceding late on.
But instead of focusing on what the future had in store for Palace at Wembley, Vieira was keen to focus on what his side got right in their demolition job over Frank Lampard’s struggling Toffees.
“We are really pleased, we did really well,” he added. “It was a really good team performance. We didn’t make it easy, especially in the first 15-20 minutes but we managed to get through the difficult period and get back into the game and win the game. We will enjoy today. They put the pressure on, and they didn’t allow us to play out from the back. We were quite smart because we didn’t force the game.
“We just played long, we knew that physically they could not maintain the same stamina for that intensity, and when we scored the first goal we managed to get in control.”
