Crystal Palace

Alex Brotherton
BBC Sport journalist

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It looked as though Crystal Palace were having a rare off night until substitute Matheus Franca popped up with a header in the second minute of added time, his first goal for the club after an injury-hit 20 months.

Oliver Glasner's side have enjoyed an impressive turnaround after failing to win any of their opening eight league games.

Palace have now taken 37 points from their past 21 league games, a points-per-game return of 1.76. Such a record over a 38-game season would mean them collecting 67 points, which last year would have been good enough to finish fifth and secure a place in the Europa League.

Remarkably this was the first time since 18 December that Palace had conceded away from home in any competition, a run of seven clean sheets.

Franca rescued a point at St Mary's, but with an FA Cup final coming up later this month, Glasner will not be too concerned about underwhelming performance.

Full report here.

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Crystal Palace are unbeaten in their past 10 away league games (W6 D4). In fact, since the start of this run in November, no side has picked up more points on the road than the Eagles in the Premier League (22, alongside Liverpool).

Were you at the game or following from elsewhere?

Have your say on Southampton's performance

What did you make of Crystal Palace's display?

Come back to this page on Thursday to find a selection of your replies

Six matches make up Wednesday's Premier League action and BBC Sport will bring you every kick.

• Bournemouth v Ipswich

• Brighton v Aston Villa

• Man City v Leicester City

• Newcastle v Brentford - listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

• Southampton v Crystal Palace

• Liverpool v Everton (20:00) - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

All kick-off times 19:45 BST unless stated

Follow all of the action and reaction here

Alex Howell
BBC Sport football news reporter

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Crystal Palace are flying high after their win over Fulham in the FA Cup quarter-final but now attention turns to their league form.

Their turnaround from the beginning of the season has been excellent and since the start of 2025, only Liverpool (11) have won more games in all competitions among Premier League sides than Oliver Glasner's Palace (10).

The Eagles have lost just twice in their past 15 games - which is all the more impressive when they have only managed to win three games at home in the league all season.

Palace are just two points from Brentford in 10th and eight points away from seventh-placed rivals Brighton who they play on Saturday.

There have been interviews with players in which they reference that they feel they can challenge for those European places, but if Palace are to do that then they will need to continue their run of good form against excellent opposition.

In the last 10 games of the campaign, Palace play eight of the current top 10 sides in the league.

As mentioned, they have only won three games at home all season and their style of play seems to suit when they come up against teams away from Selhurst Park.

However, against some of the sides they are going to face, Palace will not have as much possession as usual, which could suit them when looking at their defensive record this season.

No side has kept more than the eight clean sheets Palace have since the beginning of the year.

Every game in the Premier League is tough but Palace, if they are able to pick up some more impressive results, could have an exciting end to their league season to go with their cup run.

I've been speaking about some teams like Aston Villa and Newcastle who have got a lot to play for this season, but none of that applies to Southampton.

Saints' sole aim now is to pick up three more points and avoid going down with the lowest points tally in Premier League history.

What a depressing place to be for Southampton fans - only possibly saving some face by beating Derby County's pathetic points total of 11 points from 2007-08, when Robbie Savage was captain.

Southampton took the lead when they played Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in December, although they still lost.

I don't see the Eagles having any problems this time, though. Eberechi Eze is on fire for club and country and Ismaila Sarr found the target again in Saturday's FA Cup win over Fulham.

Sarr has gone under the radar a bit but he is one of many Palace players to have hit form, and I don't see Southampton keeping them out.

Sutton's prediction: 0-2

Read the full predictions and have your say here

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Crystal Palace have won their past four Premier League games against Southampton, as many as they had in their first 25 against them in the competition beforehand.

Southampton have lost each of their past nine Premier League home games. In English top-flight history, the only sides to endure longer home losing runs within a single season are Birmingham (10) and Watford (11).

Crystal Palace could make a move for Eintracht Frankfurt's 22-year-old French striker Hugo Ekitike if fellow French forward Jean-Philippe Mateta, 27, leaves the club this summer. (Teamtalk), external

However, Palace boss Oliver Glasner remains a candidate to take charge of RB Leipzig next season after the German side held talks with the 50-year-old Austrian's representatives. (Sky Germany), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Wednesday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Tasnim Chowdhury
BBC Sport journalist

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has been speaking to the media before Wednesday's Premier League game at Southampton (kick-off 19:45 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• Chris Richards will miss Wednesday's match, "He is struggling a bit with his calf. It doesn't look very serious, so we expect him [to return] against Brighton at the weekend. But tomorrow is a little bit early." Glasner said Jean-Philippe Mateta is "fine", adding: "It looks like he's getting back into his rhythm and that's very positive."

• On Adam Wharton: "It wasn't his best performance [against Fulham]. I think Adam can play better than he did. But yes, he has a lot of potential. We could see it last year. But we also can see when you have just a very short time to recover - not just physically, but also mentally. He struggled for six, seven, eight months with several injuries."

• On Palace's FA Cup journey: "The most important thing is that we find the switch from the cup game and are not talking about Aston Villa and thinking about Aston Villa. We need to be really in the game tomorrow, and then I think it's possible to celebrate the seventh consecutive away win."

• On six away wins without conceding a goal: "It's something I never did before. But it's also [because of] the belief of the players that we can win everywhere. What I liked in the Fulham game is we didn't get nervous after really struggling at the beginning. We relied on our quality, on our system, on what we were planning."

• Glasner added: "We know when there are moments in a game when we have to fight for each other, then we fight for each other. There are moments when we have to play together, then we play together. And I think this has really developed over the past months."

• On Wednesday's match: "I don't expect a very tactical game because they are playing, especially when we have the ball, more or less a man-to-man defence. I expect many duels. It's about winning your duels."

• On Southampton: "They're playing very aggressive. They're very physical. They always get pressure on the ball. You always get pressure on the attacking players. But on the other side, if you lose a duel, you can have very quickly an underload, and so that means always risk and chance."

All the key lines from Tuesday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Pat Nevin
Former footballer and presenter

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Eberechi Eze was in stunning form as Crystal Palace advanced in the FA Cup on Saturday, so should he be more integral to England's plans?

His first goal for England showed that he was the player most willing to try the unexpected, on what was a regulation 3-0 win against Latvia.

It is only one goal in 10 international appearances for Eze, but, bar one, each has been from the bench, often in an unsuitably defensive position and he is first and foremost a creator anyway. So that equates to one goal in 280 minutes of football, basically one goal in three games worth of playing time, so not bad after all.

‌In a crowded field with Jack Grealish, Noni Madueke, Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Cole Palmer and others now including Marcus Rashford, all vying for those creative positions, his name has often been left out of the conversation, but it shouldn't be.

‌He destroyed Fulham with another brilliant goal and an equally impressive assist, so he will be heading for Wembley again soon enough this time with Crystal Palace. His attacking skill set as a winger who can beat players with ease is up there with the best.

At 26, he is now entering his prime. Maybe now he should be getting a few more starts for his country, Thomas Tuchel must have noticed his stellar week.

‌Eze must make use of this time in the spotlight, if he doesn't there will soon be someone else up there nudging him out of the way.

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Some 31 of the past 36 FA Cups have been won by one of five teams - but only one of those remains in this season's competition, and that is Manchester City.

Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea were all knocked out before the quarter-final stage this season and that has opened the door to other clubs to have a chance at getting their hands on the trophy.

"The cup used to be a lot more democratic and dominance of the cup used to be unthinkable," said New York Times chief football correspondent Rory Smith on BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club. "That is unhealthy and it gets boring.

"It takes away a lot of the magic because if you go to seven semi-finals in seven years it takes the shine off.

"But most people don't support those clubs and they support other teams, so Newcastle have been a great advert to why other teams should be going all in for those tournaments."

Former Premier League striker Chris Sutton added: "Newcastle's win will change the perception of the competitions that have almost felt second in importance to most Premier League teams."

Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer or listen on BBC Sounds

Alex Pewter
Fan writer

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In the end, all it took was a spell of Eberechi Eze brilliance late in the first half to take Saturday's game away from Fulham, earn a seventh cup win of the season and a place at Wembley for the club's sixth FA Cup semi-final.

Seemingly, the pre-match nerves in the away end at kick-off were not at all necessary, and the "cup specialist" reputation that Oliver Glasner arrived with following his success with Eintracht Frankfurt may carry some weight.

If March was a barren month for Premier League fixtures, having only faced Ipswich, then April is set to be a hectic one by comparison.

The team will be unable to revel in their FA Cup exploits for long. While a fourth game this season against Aston Villa awaits at the end of the month in the cup, the other five league fixtures will be season-defining in their pursuit of a top-half finish and beyond.

Aside from Wednesday's away trip to Southampton, which carries a different sort of pressure as the de facto favourite on paper, each of the remaining matches is against a team from the top half of the table, each either occupying or within touching distance of European qualification.

If Glasner and his team are to stake their claim as contenders, these are precisely the fixtures they will need to win to establish themselves as one. With almost every team element clicking into place at the right time, there is no reason to believe they cannot do just that.

Find more from Alex Pewter at FYP podcast, external

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Crystal Palace are the first English top-flight side to ever win six straight away games without conceding a goal.

"That has blown me away," former Premier League midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker told BBC Radio 5 Live's Football Daily podcast. "That is remarkable.

"The result at Fulham caught me off guard because I thought it would be a closer game than it was. Instead, Palace went there and absolutely dismantled Fulham.

"Marco Silva's side didn't look like they had any ideas or answers and Palace looked a class above.

"When you look at Palace now and look into the future of what could happen to them, you think about the players that could be poached. Marc Guehi, Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr, Adam Wharton and Jean-Phillipe Mateta would be the ones I expect teams to come in for because of the season they are having.

"I am looking at the teams left in the FA Cup and they are probably the one team that could just focus on the competition, so that is an advantage when any one of those teams could win it."

Listen on BBC Sounds

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We asked for your views on Crystal Palace's 3-0 victory over Fulham in the FA Cup quarter-finals.

Here are some of your comments:

Rob: A terrific defensive performance meant that even with Fulham's domination of possession in the first 25 minutes, Palace never looked like conceding. Jefferson Lerma's long-distance effort seemed to spark things and from then on we moved up the gears. Eberechi Eze's goal was sensational and his assist for Ismaila Sarr was perfect. Defensively, Chris Richards was a rock at the centre of everything. Great for Eddie Nketiah to make the scoresheet too. A great overall performance. It was a really good overall team performance, well managed by Glasner and superb support as ever from the fans.

Theo: Great Palace display! It will really help us with the fact that Mateta is back, and Eze can really show his true colours. We've been really solid at the back this season and that trend continued across the Thames.

Keith: I believe we are only going to get stronger in the rest of the season. We were a bit rusty as it was the first competitive game in over three weeks. Mateta is going to get back to full fitness and the squad is fully fit apart from two long-term absentees. I believe a top-seven position in the league is there for the taking and FA Cup winners.

James: We missed Will Hughes for the first half hour but Eze's goal changed everything. In the end, it could have been more. What a strike from Lerma when he hit the bar - and how many headed clearances did Chris Richards make? We fear no-one. Well, maybe Man City, but nobody else!

Al: What a professional and clinical performance. The three centre-backs were yet again incredible. Our wing-backs are a threat and when you have players like Eze, Sarr and Nketiah, you know there is a threat across the front line. In Glasner we believe - and now dare to dream.

Joe: A magical afternoon on the banks of the Thames! Palace weathered the storm, and then took control with three cracking goals. We need to keep this team and this manager; then we can see just where we can go! Beautiful.

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The draw for the FA Cup semi-finals has been made.

Here are the two ties in the order they were drawn.

Games will be played at Wembley over the final weekend of April.

• Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth or Manchester City

• Crystal Palace v Aston Villa

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Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner also spoke to ITV after today's win: "Key number one was to survive the first 20 minutes. We were really rusty after three weeks with no competitive game. We only had one training before this game with everyone coming back from the national team. The structure wasn't good and everyone struggled.

"Key number two was Eberechi (Eze's) goal. It's unbelievable - the individual quality. Then we have the confidence and in our structure waiting for the right moments."

On Eze: "What I told him I already said to you - it was so important the first goal because we got the belief back, we were really struggling in the beginning. You need something when you're struggling in the game, some positive actions to get the belief back."

On his team's effort: "It's not fair to only talk about one player because it was such a great team effort. In the second half there was a lot of pressure because if they had scored one goal it would have been a tight game again. It's a great group and everyone is here to help the team."

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Crystal Palace midfielder Eberechi Eze has also been speaking to ITV after today's win: "It was an important goal. I'm happy to help the team and that's what I'm here for. We didn't start the best, it was difficult and there was a lot of defending but eventually we broke them down."

On his goal: "I want to get the ball in the pockets and cutting inside, thank God it went in today. We took our chances when we got them and we put in a good performance."

On whether Crystal Palace have what it takes to win the FA Cup: "We're confident in ourselves and we know what we can do, we know what we are capable of. It's games like today where you show the mentality which will get you further in the tournament."

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Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi has been speaking to ITV after today's victory: "We dug deep and got our rewards. Big credit to the manager and the staff, we make sure we are set up in the right way with real leaders on the pitch. There is resilience in the team and that's what we need.

"We'll take it one game at a time. We did what we had to do today, we focus on the league and then focus on who we get in the next round. One game at a time. We thank God for this opportunity so we will do our best to take it."