Mateta Leads Fightback To Fire Palace Into Third Round With Treble At Plymouth

Seven changes were made by Roy Hodgson for this Second Round EFL Cup tie against Plymouth but he had to call on the cavalry to ensure safe passage into the next round.

MATCH INFORMATION

• 7.45pm – 29th August 2023
• Plymouth Argyle 2-4 Crystal Palace
• Home Park, Plymouth PL2 3DQ

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 2 Joel Ward, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 37 John-Kymani GORDON, 40 Jack WELLS-MORRISON, 42 Sean GREHAN

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 3 Macauley GILLESPHEY. 8 Joe EDWARDS, 20 Adam RANDELL, 21 Conor HAZARD

TEB VERDICT

It was good to see some fringe players to be given minutes but a poor first half was followed up by being two goals down at the start of the second half. That was enough for Roy Hodgson and fair play to him for making the changes which allowed more structure and add a touch of class to the side which blitzed the hosts with three quick goals. Each of the substitutes stepped up and were involved in the fight back but it was more disappointing that the fringe players did not really grab the opportunity handed to them and perhaps suggests squad depth is questionable.

Regardless, the Eagles found a ruthless streak and it was good to see Mateta grab a hat-trick and Edouard score the other at a time when we are all craving a goalscoring striker.

POST GAME QUOTES

ROY HODGSON

“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 must 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.”

STEVEN SCHUMACHER

“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 we played well. We pushed a top team in 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, overall, I’m pleased with the performance but gutted to be out.”

MATCH STATISTICS

UPCOMING FIXTURES

03/09/23 Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) – Premier League 2pm

16/09/23 Aston Villa (a) – Premier League 3pm

23/09/23 Fulham (h) – Premier League 3pm