The first of what could be two visits to Wembley adds a worthy gloss on an impressive first season for Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace. After a shaky opening period they struck two quickfire goals and never looked like relinquishing their grasp on a first appearance in the FA Cup semi-finals since 2016 — when they went on to lose to Manchester United in the final.
In the week that Palace had fought to draw 0-0 with Manchester City this felt another example of their growing maturity and stature to control the game. It also reflected Everton’s general frailties and brittle confidence that they fell apart at the back after a promising opening when they had chances to lead.
Everton never looked like recovering from 2-0 down at the break and shipped two late goals that made the scoreline more embarrassing for Frank Lampard who has his hands full trying to avoid the drop.
Marc Guéhi headed Palace into the lead, celebrating his first England call-up last week, Jean-Philippe Mateta struck a fine low finish and the game was drifting when Wilfried Zaha poached a third and Will Hughes a fourth.
Vieira made two changes to his Palace side and picked an adventurous line-up, starting together for the first time Zaha, Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze. They understandably looked a little uncertain early on but Vieira used an injury break to Everton’s Andros Townsend to give them advice about their positioning. The four attacking players began to interchange positions more freely and Everton could not cope with their pace and movement.
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Lampard started with a wing-back system and made some enforced changes without the cup-tied Donny van de Beek, Dele Alli and Anwar El Ghazi. He had spoken about not having to prioritise the FA Cup over league, despite Leeds United’s dramatic win over Wolves doing them no favours on Friday.
At least until Everton conceded from a set piece, their confidence bucked their form and they pinned Palace back in their own half in the early stages. Inside a minute Townsend swung a free kick and Michael Keane had two bites trying to shoot, scuffing his effort towards the far post where Ben Godfrey could not turn home.
Moments later Guéhi did well to redeem what could have been a costly mistake. The centre back was given a tough start from Richarlison, made a heavy touch and the forward nearly nipped in before Guéhi recovered just in time. When Richarlison latched onto a through ball, claiming a half-hearted penalty when he was offside, and then glanced over a good chance, Everton were inching closer to taking the lead.
But the momentum swung the other way with a serious knee injury for Townsend who got his studs caught in the turf and had to be carried off on the shoulders of two staff. Townsend had been pressing and Everton were playing higher up the pitch and that stopped when Demarai Gray came in.
In the break Vieira came to the touchline to tinker with his team. It was 20 minutes in and Palace started to properly get forward and had a first effort of note. Zaha carried the ball and pushed through to Olise who spun Keane and shot straight at Jordan Pickford, who made a surprising return in goal from illness after being ruled out days ago.
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It was a warning for Everton and Palace owed their opening goal to the perseverance of Olise, who chased down Conor Gallagher’s heavy ball and won a corner. Pickford punched clear the first delivery but the second was curled away and Guéhi beat his man and headed powerfully home, a poor goal for Everton to concede. Vieira broke out into a smile and another followed four minutes before the interval. Zaha was in-field when he exchanged passes with Eze and burst down the touchline. He cut the ball back for Mateta who sweetly guided the ball under Pickford.
After the break Gray spun and shrugged off Guéhi and fired narrowly wide of the far post. Olise curled over after a flowing move involving Zaha and Odsonne Édouard turned and laid on Olise who curled over.
But Palace made the game safe late on with two goals in the final 11 minutes.Zaha weaved inside and outside and held off challenges. His pass eventually went through to Olise, who shot against his own leg, the ball lopping onto the post for Zaha to react first and fire home.
Then Édouard drove towards the box and passed to Gallagher whose shot was saved by Pickford and Hughes followed up to reflect their dominance.
Crystal Palace (4-3-3) J Butland 6 - N Clyne 7, J Andersen 6, M Guehi 7, T Mitchell 7 – C Gallagher 6, C Kouyate 6 (sub: W Hughes, 83 mins), E Eze 7 (sub: L Milivojevic, 71), M Olise 8 (sub: C Benteke, 83), J-P Mateta 8 (sub: O Édouard, 71 6), W Zaha 8
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Everton (3-4-2-1) J Pickford 5 - M Holgate 4, M Keane 4, B Godfrey 4 - S Coleman 5 (sub: A Iwobi, 73 5), A Doucoure 5, A Gomes 4, J Kenny 4 (sub: Calvert-Lewin, 46 5) - A Townsend 7 (sub: D Gray, 17 5), A Gordon 5 – Richarlison 5 Booked Gomes, Gordon
Referee: S Attwell
