8 March 2025
Crystal Palace 1 Ipswich Town 0
Oliver Glasner’s side are looking impressive since the turn of the year. They have won seven out of their nine games and only suffered a single defeat in 2025. A top half finish is seeming a realistic ambition for The Eagles. They welcomed Ipswich Town to Selhurst Park, who are struggling so much to grind out victories that their Premier League safety is slipping away by the week.
Palace are having to get to grips without influential striker Mateta after his horror-injury in the FA Cup. However, it offered the chance for Nketiah to make an impact having struggled to find a regular starting spot since his move across the capital from Arsenal. Only Liverpool and The Gunners had taken more points than The Eagles this calendar year.
The hosts started on the front foot as Wharton threaded a sublime pass into the path of Nketiah. With only the keeper to beat, he took once touch before getting a shot away but Palmer was quick off his line to make an important block. A player with more minutes under his belt this season may have showed a more cultured finish but the early warning signs were there for Ipswich.
On their first visit into The Eagles’ half, the Tractor Boys almost took the lead. Davis got down the left wing with acres of space in front of him. He looked to square it to Delap but the ball was just behind him. Philogene arrived to get on the end of it and his left-footed shot was heading into the far corner. Only a superb one-handed save from Henderson could deny him.
Glasner’s side won a free-kick when Sarr was taken out on the edge of the penalty area. Greaves was shown a yellow card but the Palace winger was baffled as to how it was not a red with him being the last man. Palmer had come out to collect the ball but that shouldn’t have been a consideration. Classic Simon Hooper, another official who constantly contradicts the laws of the game.
Only some last-ditch defending was keeping Ipswich Town in this game. Wharton was pulling all the strings in the middle of the park, his vision and passing was opening up the visitors with regularity. Nketiah then played in Eze but his shot was deflected over the crossbar for a corner. It seemed just a matter of time before The Eagles opened the scoring.
Enciso almost made the hosts pay for their inability to create clear-cut chances. In a rare attack forward, the Brighton loanee thundered a shot off at goal from a tight angle but Henderson did well to beat the effort away. On a sunny spring afternoon, the sides went in at the interval with nothing to separate them, despite Crystal Palace’s dominance in the game.
After the break, Glasner’s side picked up from where they left off. Passing the ball around, making the visitors chase shadows. It came to Eze outside the box, who managed to work a brief sight of goal and let fly with venomous effort. It took a huge deflection, looping into the air towards the far corner, causing Palmer to scramble across his goal as it struck the outside of the post.
Despite chasing the game in the main, Ipswich caused the hosts their fair share of scares. Delap got into the box and got a thunderous shot away from an impossible angle but Henderson made another superb one-handed save to keep it out. From the resulting corner, the Palace keeper had to make another couple of important blocks before Sarr cleared off the line from the follow up.
Eze had another deflected shot at goal which Palmer tipped around the post at full-stretch. As the corner came in, Sarr rose highest to get a glancing header, only to see it drop just the wrong side of the post. At this point you wondered whether Ipswich Town were going to nick a point from a game that, on most days, they would have lost.
Davis almost gifted the hosts an opening goal when he scuffed a pass back to his keeper. Munoz ran onto it but, once again, Palmer made a crucial save to deny him. After working so hard to stay on level terms in this game, it would have been soul-destroying for the Tractor Boys to give Palace a goal in such bizarre fashion. Fortunately, they were let off the hook by the hosts.
Just as it seemed the visitors were going to pick up a crucial point, Sarr and Kamada linked up outside the box. The Palace winger skipped past his marker and provided a sublime finish as he dinked it over Palmer, much to the relief of the Palace fans. They had finally found their goal with only eight minutes of normal time remaining.
It is another defeat that will hurt Kieran McKenna’s side, much like their loss at Old Trafford on the road recently. Crystal Palace continued their impressive form despite being without their main striker. On this form, The Eagles could really make this a season to remember. With things so tight in the table, there is no reason why they couldn’t secure European qualification.
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