Two managers who had each won the FA Cup four times as players enjoyed wildly contrasting fortunes as Crystal Palace reached their first semi-final since 2016. Patrick Viera’s Palace overcame a slow start to steamroller Frank Lampard’s Everton and book their place at Wembley.
Everton began as if the adrenaline was still flowing from Thursday’s added-time victory over Newcastle but as soon as Palace were able to get at that shaky defence, the game was up. Dismal defending allowed Marc Guehi to celebrate his England call-up with the opening goal after 25 minutes.
Jean-Philippe Mateta doubled their lead before the interval and after that it was a stroll in the Selhurst sunshine for Palace as Wilfried Zaha and Will Hughes added further goals.
Everton could have been ahead in the first few minutes. Michael Keane pulled a shot across goal with Ben Godfrey just unable to reach the ball at the far post, and Guehi appeared to trip Richarlison as he attempted to make amends for his own underhit backpass.
The Brazilian was proving a handful and when he went down again in the penalty area, Guehi probably breathed a sigh of relief when he spotted a flag raised for offside.
Crystal Palace take the lead, against the run of play
Palace seemed taken aback by Everton’s intensity and for a time they struggled to string two passes together. Even the departure of former Palace winger Andros Townsend after landing heavily on his ankle in the 15th minute did not seem to disrupt their rhythm.
But the visitors paid for not turning those dangerous attacks into goals when Palace broke away to score in the 25th minute, and although Guehi may have scored, it was Michael Olise who made it happen. He chased what looked like a lost cause to win a corner, which he took himself.
Player ratings
Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1)
Butland – 6
Clyne – 6
Andersen – 7
Guehi – 7
Mitchell – 6
Gallagher – 6
Kouyate – 7
Olise – 9
Eze – 8
Zaha – 6
Mateta – 7
Subs:
Milivojevic – 6
Edouard – 6
Hughes – 7
Everton (5-4-1)
Pickford – 6
Coleman – 6
Holgate – 5
Keane – 5
Godfrey – 6
Kenny – 6
Gordon – 7
Doucoure – 5
Gomes – 6
Townsend – 6
Richarlison – 7
Subs:
Gray – 6
Calvert-Lewin – 6
Iwobi – 6
He tested Jordan Pickford with his first, inswinging, effort and dropped his second onto the six-yard line, where Guehi sauntered unchallenged between defenders to head in.
Zaha should have doubled the lead after 33 minutes when he met Mateta’s low cross with a first-time shot that somehow found the side-netting instead of the goal.
Breathing space! ????@CPFC double their lead, through a beautifully worked goal ????????
But when Palace produced a mirror image of the move after 41 minutes, it paid off. Zaha, fed by Eberechi Eze, whipped the ball over and Mateta prodded the ball past Pickford.
Analysis: Marc Guehi marks perfect week
By Oliver Young-Myles
Without wanting to go full Craig David, it has been some seven days for Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi.
On Monday, he marshalled the Eagles to a clean sheet against Manchester City, a result celebrated as much in Liverpool as it was on the Holmesdale Road terraces. On Thursday, he received his maiden call-up to England’s senior squad for matches against Switzerland and the Ivory Coast, his birth country. And then on Sunday, he set Palace on their way to an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley by opening the scoring against Everton.
Palace took a calculated risk when making Guehi their third-most expensive signing in history last summer. The £18m defender had as solid a football education as a young player could reasonably ask for, winning titles with Chelsea and England at youth level, before learning on the job with Swansea City in the Championship. But prior to this season, he had never kicked a ball in the Premier League.
It is a gamble that had paid off handsomely for the club and manager Patrick Vieira, though, with Guehi establishing a solid partnership with Joachim Andersen and emerging as one of the top up-and-coming centre-backs in English football. That Vieira has handed him the captain’s armband in recent weeks is evidence of his maturity and leadership qualities.
With Harry Maguire struggling for form and John Stones for minutes, Gareth Southgate, once a mainstay in a Palace back four himself, will be keeping a keen eye on Guehi’s progress in the build-up to the Qatar World Cup this winter.
Alarming gaps were now opening up in the Everton rearguard and only a last-ditch challenge from Keane prevented Mateta making it three. Lampard threw on Dominic Calvert-Lewin for the second half but to no avail.
Palace, in contrast, could do nothing wrong. The crowd laughed when Olise’s shot from Zaha’s pass flew up off his boot but the ball dropped beyond Pickford, off the post and into the path of Zaha, who tapped in the third. Hughes added a late fourth after Pickford had parried Conor Gallagher’s volley.
England and France competing for talented Palace star Michael Olise
By Sam Cunningham, i‘s chief football correspondent
England face a tussle with France to retain the services of highly-rated attacking midfielder Michael Olise.
The Crystal Palace player was born in England but qualifies to play for France through his French-Algerian mother and has even courted interest from Nigeria, where his father was born.
Olise, 20, first opted to play for France Under 18s while he was on the books at Reading and this week accepted a first call-up to their under 21 side.
England manager Gareth Southgate, who came through Palace’s academy and made more than 150 appearances for the south London club, would like Olise to commit to England but is aware the player could still chose France.
Olise will not be tied to a country until he plays in a competitive senior match. But it does not appear that manager Vieira, a former France legend who won a World Cup and European Championship with the national team, has swayed any decision.
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