James Tomkins and Luka Milivojević scored on either side of half-time to secure a huge win for Crystal Palace against Huddersfield Town in the Premier League at the John Smith’s Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Palace would have been itching to gain vengeance after Huddersfield pulled off a shock 3-0 win at Selhurst Park on the opening day of the season and they almost got to a dream start within the first two minutes.
After Florent Hadergjonaj headed behind Andros Townsend’s cross from the right, Luka Milivojević’s corner found James McArthur unmarked at the back post, he aimed a pass towards Christian Benteke in the middle which led to a tight goalmouth scramble.
The hosts eventually cleared the danger but were under more pressure minutes later as Aaron Mooy fouled Jeffrey Schlupp centrally outside the box and Milivojević bent his free-kick over the wall before watching it fly inches wide of the post – Jonas Lössl was frozen.
Huddersfield started to grow into the game at the 10-minute mark and were nearly in on goal after Mamadou Sakho carelessly hit a pass onto Alex Pritchard’s back and into the path of Steve Mounié – the French centre-back recovered well though and reclaimed possession.
Roy Hodgson was forced into an early change in the 20th minute as Schlupp added to Palace’s woeful injury list and had to be replaced by Yohan Cabaye, away frowns were turned into smiles moments later though as James Tomkins headed in the opener.
Mounié made a poor attempt to clear Milivojević’s corner by helping the ball on towards the back post where Tomkins was waiting to poke home, Lössl saved the initial effort before the defender put it the rebound to send the travelling fans into a frenzy.
James Tomkins gives Palace the lead
Milivojević turned from supplier to saviour shortly after the deadlock was broken, crucially intercepting Collin Quaner’s low cross from the right which was destined to fall for Pritchard in the box.
The Terriers reacted positively to going behind in such an important match and were enjoying much more possession as Palace started to set up a bit more defensively, but just like against Swansea City last time out were struggling to create any real openings.
After two minutes of injury time added on by referee Mike Dean the first half came to an end, a half in which the home side failed to take a single shot on goal did were looking better in the latter stages; the second period was nicely framed.
HALF-TIME: Huddersfield Town 0-1 Crystal Palace (Tomkins 23)
David Wagner made one change to his team at the break, with Chris Löwe replacing Scott Malone at left-back, as they aimed to search for a vital equaliser in front of their home faithful who, as usual, were terrific.
A slick Palace move 10 minutes into the second half led to a penalty shout when Mathias Jørgensen appeared to bring Benteke down in the area by pulling his shirt after McArthur played the Belgian through, but referee Dean controversially waved away the claims.
Extraordinarily, Tomkins was agonisingly close to scoring his second of the day, meeting Townsend’s corner at the back post before having his shot heroically stopped on the line by Town striker Mounié.
The visitors came straight back though and Benteke thought he was one-on-one with Lössl to make it 2-0 but half-time substitute Löwe performed a last-ditch tackle to take the ball away from the no. 17.
Mounié squandered Huddersfield’s biggest chance to equalise just after the hour mark as Hadergjonaj burst towards the by-line and fired a cross inwards which Milivojević couldn’t divert, but the striker cannoned his strike past the post – he should’ve scored.
After wrongly being denied a penalty on the first instance, The Eagles were awarded a spot-kick soon after Mounié’s chance; Jørgensen the culprit again as he clumsily took out Townsend.
Miliviojević stepped up and smashed past Lössl, sending the Danish goalkeeper the wrong way, to double Palace’s lead and surely kill the home side off in what was assured to be a brilliant triumph in West Yorkshire.
It was almost 3-0 in the 74th minute after Aaron Wan-Bissaka, impressive again since his introduction into the first team, skilled his way into space on the right before McArthur headed on his pin-point cross towards the back post and Benteke couldn’t quite meet it.
As the match neared its end there was a sight the travelling fans and manager Hodgson would not have wanted to see as Wilfried Zaha limped off and Ruben Loftus-Cheek replaced him – it did look more precautionary though.
Crystal Palace were comfortable as they closed the game out and inflicted another disappointing home result on Huddersfield Town and leapfrogged Southampton to dump the south coast side into the relegation zone ahead of the international break.
Huddersfield remain above Palace on 31 points but sit only three points above the drop zone with Southampton and West Ham United with a game in hand – this result only makes the battle for Premier League safety even more exciting.
