Crystal Palace manager, Oliver Glasner considers Arsenal “lucky” to beat his team on penalties in their Carabao Cup exit.
Maxence Lacroix’s own-goal put the Gunners ahead before Marc Guehi’s close-range finish forced penalties, where Lacroix penalty for Palace was saved as Arsenal won 8-7 in the shootout.
The shootout was Palace’s third of the season after they beat Liverpool in the FA Community Shield then Millwall in the third round of this competition, but Glasner was pleased at the quality of the shootout and felt that Arsenal simply had the better luck as he refused to blame Lacroix in his post-match conference.
“We had already two penalty shootouts this year, and we won both, and today Arsenal were the lucky team. To be honest, I’ve watched many penalty shootouts in my life, but I can’t remember having seen so many well-taken penalties. It’s always somebody who has to miss, and today it was one of our players, but nobody is to blame.”
Glasner addressed the natural disappointment of such a loss but spoke of their performance which saw them outclassed in the first half, before they matched Palace in the second half as he praised goalkeeper – Walter Benitez for his display just two months from their narrow league loss in North London.
“Of course, when you lose a game, when you lose on penalties, you’re always disappointed.
“On the other side, I’m delighted with the second-half performance today, especially after the first-half performance – that was really bad. Walter Benitez kept us in the game, but the second-half was much better, it was an all-even game.
“I spoke to the players. For us, it’s important to build on the second-half performance and also show that great character again. All of a sudden, in the second half, one-nil down from a set-play, it looked like deja vu from the league game.
“Then, coming back again, with everything that’s happened in the last weeks and months, is a huge credit to the players for their mindset – so we’ll take many positives from today’s performance.”
Benitez in particular drew praise from Glasner as Palace’s designated cup goalkeeper when he could of stuck with their first-choice keeper, Dean Henderson, yet felt Benitez deserved to start after his performance in their fourth round win at Liverpool.
“Dean is our number one, but Walter deserves to play the cup games and he saved the penalties against Millwall in the third round.
“He had a clean sheet against Liverpool and he’s doing really well in the training, so he deserves to play this competition.”
Glasner also reflected on Palace’s Quarter-Final exit at Arsenal last season in which he opted to start Henderson over then cup goalkeeper, Matt Turner, as he admitted that he didn’t want to risk making the same error again hence his decision to field Benitez.
“Also, to be honest, last year Matt Turner started and then when we played here at the Emirates, I changed the goalkeeper. We played Dean Henderson and we lost, and I said to Dean, ‘I’m a little bit superstitious, I don’t want to change the goalkeeper again.’
“That was the reason that Walter stayed in the goal, and he showed that he deserved it.”
Palace however were dealt an injury blow after defender, Chris Richards was forced off with a foot injury following a clash with Arsenal’s Gabriel Jesus, but Glasner explained that he simply needed stitches but wasn’t definitive on how long he might be out of action.
“He got a knock on his foot, a stamp on his foot, and it had to be stitched,” said Glasner. “I don’t know how many stitches, but a few.
“The doctor told me it doesn’t look so bad. I’m always hopeful. We have to be hopeful. I don’t know if he will be okay for the Tottenham game, but I’m still hoping that he will be back against Fulham.”
Glasner’s Eagles are next in action at home to Tottenham on Sunday 28 December at Selhurst Park, so the Austrian has given his squad Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, and urged them to focus on family and being the son, father and husbands that their loved ones need.
“I think now it’s so important to switch off and not talk about football. Everybody has a family. The parents deserve that their sons come home, not the football player comes home, and the wives, the girlfriends, the children, [deserve] that the dad and the husband is now at home, not the football player, talking about football.
“Two and a half days, really switching off completely. We have five games in the next two weeks, but now it’s really: leave football.
“Then, when we meet on the 26th in the afternoon, we will analyse this game today. Of course we will. I’m pretty sure we’ll take many positives from it. This performance, and the switch of the performance especially, should give us confidence, definitely.”
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