Palace so close to felling Forest, but look perky with 12 sleeps to go until Wembley
- By Yann Tear at Selhurst Park
- May 5
- 3 min read
Crystal Palace (0) 1 Eze pen 60
Nottingham Forest (0) 1 Murillo 64
The Eagles once more found Forest a tough nut to crack as they extended a winless run against them to nine games.
That was in spite of the fact they fielded their best XI, with Oliver Glasner resisting the temptation to rest players ahead of the FA Cup final.
But the Eagles finished strongly and very nearly snatched the win when Eberechi Eze struck the crossbar from outside the area and created a glut of chances as the clock ticked into the red for eight minutes of injury time.
Eze's stuttering run-up penalty gave the Eagles the lead on the hour but Forest quickly equalised, so the search for a first win against them at Selhurst since 2003 continues.
The draw does, however damage Forest's Champions League ambitions as they bid to close the gap on the top five with three to play. The East Midlands outfit are two points adrift of Chelsea - who occupy that vital fifth place.
A game which could so easily have been a dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final on May 17 - had Nottingham not succumbed to Man City in the semi-final - took a while to get going and Palace fans had to be patient in their wait for any serious home action.
Half an hour had elapsed before anything resembling a chance came along - Daniel Munoz's far post volley forcing a save from Matz Sels.
A cross from Tyrick Mitchell created that opening but bursts from Ismailia Sarr were the best source of danger for the Eagles in an otherwise insipid first half. Twice he was stopped in his tracks by desperate fouls from retreating Forest players.
For the Champions League chasing visitors, Morgan Gibbs-White's probing runs promised reward but Dean Henderson did not have too much to do until Nicolas Dominguez and Chris Wood combined in a lightning breakaway to set up the clearest opening yet for Anthony Elanga. The Palace keeper was equal to it.
After a turgid first-half, the game started to open up, with Sarr heading just wide and being denied by Sels' starfish smother before Wood's strike at the other end was deflected just off target by Maxence Lecroix.
Then came the breakthough. Sarr's chip in towards Mitchell ended with the wingback being taken out by a combination of Dominguez and Sels racing out to reach the ball. Eze, who recently missed a penalty in the defeat at Newcastle, struck the ball firmly to the right of Sels from the spot - the keeper guessing the right way but unable to get a firm hand to it.
The lead was short-lived. Henderson did superbly to turn aside an angled Elanga free-kick from the left edge of the area but in the next attack, Murillo deftly deflected a shot from Neco Williams into the net to make it 1-1.
There were late chances to win it, first when a Marc Guehi cross found the head of Lacroix at the back stick but the defender could not get above the ball enough to direct it goalwards.
Palace finished well on top after Forest's defensive bedrock Murillo had gone off with a hamstring injury as Eze hit the woodwork and sub Eddie Nketiah was judged offside after touching home an Eze drive deep into stoppage time.
Forest also got lucky when Sels stretched to a ball from Daniel Munoz and almost sent it into the path of the lurking Nketiah and from the resulting corner, Will Hughes fired just over.
It was a breathless finale out of keeping with the first-half stand-off.
Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Richards, Lacroix, Guehi - Munoz, Wharton (Hughes 61), Kamada (Lerma 87), Mitchell - Sarr, Eze - Mateta (Nketiah 76)
Forest: (4-2-3-1) Sels - Aina, Milenkovic, Murillo (Morato 81), Williams - Sangare (Yates 76), Dominguez (Sosa 65) - Elanga, Gibbs-White, Anderson - Wood
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