19 April 2025
Crystal Palace 0 Bournemouth 0
Two sides met at Selhurst Park who seemed to be devoid of confidence at the moment. Bournemouth travelled to the capital, hoping to find their form from earlier in the season, which had people talking about Champions League football. The Eagles came into this game off the back of a real hiding at St James’ Park in midweek.
If you have watched The Cherries in the last month or so, all never seems lost with them. If you are losing games and struggling to create chances, you are bang in trouble, but Bournemouth were laden with chances every week. Despite all their attacking flair in the front three, they were really lacking any clinical edge in front of goal right now.
A slender win against Fulham in their last game seemed to boost confidence and Iraola was hoping his team would find their groove once again. Kluivert returned from injury as a much-needed boost for The Cherries. They started the match in confident mood and were asking questions of the hosts. Semenyo fired a shot off from the edge of the box and weirdly, it was blocked by his own player on the line.
Huijsen was the player involved, who seemed surprised by the ball coming through to him. Semenyo’s shot seemed to have Henderson well beaten as he stood rooted to the spot. As The Eagles struggled to deal with The Cherries, Richards was shown a harsh yellow card for a foul on Ouattara. The winger had completely fooled the referee as he made a meal out of the slightest of contacts. The home fans were enraged by the decision.
Moments later Scott, who had already been booked in the game, tripped a Palace player in the middle of the park. The Eagles surrounded the official, demanding a second yellow card be shown. He waved away their demands. As Bournemouth then looked to counter-attack, Kluivert was pulled back by Richards. This time the referee did not hesitate and gave him his marching orders.
After the break, the hosts were still reeling from that sending off. Tackles were flying in and the referee was struggling to keep control of the game. The Cherries were dominating possession but were not creating many clear-cut opportunities. This had been the problem that has led to such a dire run of form seeing Iraola’s side drop to mid-table.
As The Eagles forced a corner on a rare attack, they sent the big men forward. Kepa came to try and collect the cross, getting nowhere near the ball as ever. Zabarnyi got a glancing header which almost sent it into his own net. Nobody was more relieved to see it narrowly go over than the Spanish keeper. He deals with crosses about as well as most vampires.
It had turned into a scrappy game with few chances. If either side were going to score, it looked like it was going to come from a series of bad decisions in one of the sides’ defences. Everything was suggesting that The Cherries should win this game. They had Palace under pressure whenever they came forward with their extra man.
Credit where it is due, Glasner’s side really dug deep and did all they could to make themselves difficult to break down. To make matters worse for the hosts, their big players seemed to be already on the beach mentally and you had to double check the teamsheet to make sure that they were actually playing. This is why big sides hesitate in coming in with offers for them.
If you were to ask any of the fans in the ground what their personal highlights of the game were, the full time whistle would no doubt feature heavily. Clean sheets are often something to be proud of but these two teams could have played for the rest of the week and not scored. There is no danger of any action from this game featuring in the opening titles of Match of the Day.
The Eagles would look upon this as a point gained given the pressure they endured and the fact they had to play a large portion of the game with only ten men. Andoni Iraola must be scratching his head in disbelief of just how much his side have tailed off this season. They look a shadow of the team that was beating Man City and Arsenal earlier in the campaign.
Both sides seem destined for mid-table mediocrity this season. The teams above them are pulling away from the pair and they would need to win every game remaining to change that fact. The one thing Crystal Palace still have to look forward to is an FA Cup semi-final and a trip to Wembley to potentially make this a historic campaign for The Eagles.
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