Plymouth Argyle 2-4 Crystal Palace: Jean-Philippe Mateta scores hat-trick as Eagles come from 2-0 down

Crystal Palace have started the Premier League season with a win, a draw and a loss

Crystal Palace scored three goals in five second-half minutes to come from 2-0 down to win at Plymouth Argyle in the Carabao Cup second round.

Ben Waine gave the Championship side a flying start as he fired in from close range early on, and Luke Cundle superbly doubled their lead 33 seconds after the interval.

But Palace responded in devastating fashion as Odsonne Edouard converted from close range and Jean-Philippe Mateta tapped in soon after.

Mateta then blasted in his second before Eberechi Eze fed Mateta for the French striker to ruthlessly complete his first hat-trick for the Premier League side.

Ben Waine's early goal had given Plymouth Argyle belief before Palace's second-half fightback

This was the first time a top-flight side had visited Home Park for a competitive fixture since Argyle - then in League Two - were beaten by Liverpool in an FA Cup third-round replay in January 2017.

Palace made seven changes from the side that drew 1-1 at Brentford, including a debut for 20-year-old forward Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, while Argyle made nine from the team that narrowly lost at Birmingham City.

It was Waine - one of those brought in by Argyle boss Steven Schumacher - who put them ahead with his third goal in two EFL Cup starts as he got on the end of Callum Wright's back-post header from Tyreik Wright's cross.

Palace had an equaliser disallowed five minutes later when Rak-Sakyi was offside as he finished a Jefferson Lerma pass after a good move.

Argyle settled into the opening period well and looked a threat going forward, with Wright particularly impressive.

The Eagles' best first-half chance came when Mateta was a toe's width away from Rak-Sakyi's low cross at the back post, before Mickel Miller flashed an effort wide of the Palace post in stoppage time.

Soon after the break, Cundle curled a wonderful right-footed shot into the top corner from 25 yards to double Argyle's lead and appear to calm any home nerves.

Palace responded by bringing on Jordan Ayew, Eze and Jeffrey Schlupp in a triple change 10 minutes into the half - and it proved a masterstroke by Eagles boss Roy Hodgson.

Eze and Ayew linked up well before the latter put in a cross from the right that Edouard converted, before Eze's low ball in from the left was tapped in by Mateta.

Schlupp then released Mateta with a right-footed pass from midfield and the French striker blasted in to give his side the lead.

Waine and Miller both went close for the Pilgrims before Palace showed their ruthlessness for the fourth as Eze broke before feeding Mateta, who shot right-footed past at the near post.

Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher told BBC Sport:

"I really enjoyed the whole night to be honest.

"I'm obviously gutted to go out and not get to the next round, but I felt that we played really well.

"We pushed a top team in Crystal Palace all the way, we showed in large parts of the game what we're capable of and just for a five minute spell in the second half we got undone with three real brilliant moments of play from top quality players.

"So it's something for us to learn from, but overall I'm pleased with the performance, but gutted to be out."

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson told BBC Sport:

"I didn't enjoy the first half very much - I thought they were very good throughout, I think they're a good team and certainly in the first half I felt they fully deserved the lead at half time.

"I don't think we got anywhere near close enough for my liking to cause them problems and look as though we were going to get that equalising goal.

"Then of course at half time we tried to galvanize the team a little bit and maybe with only one goal in it we'd play better in the second half and suddenly we're 2-0 down.

"It was a really good performance to come back from that and we have to thank of course the senior players, the ones who have been playing in the first team, they replaced some of the ones who haven't played for a while and they enabled us to create those goal chances to score the goals."