Late Franca Goal Keeps Unbeaten Run Going At Southampton

In what was arguably one of the worst performances of the season but perhaps it was a case of taking the eye off the ball after the exertions of the weekend. The point does see the Eagles hit 40 points for the season.

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 2 Joel WARD, 21 Romain ESSE, 30 Matt TURNER, 55 58 Caleb KPORHA

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 1 Alex MCCARTHY, 14 James BREE, 15 Nathan WOOD, 37 Armel BELLA-KOTCHAP

TEB VERDICT

You could almost forgive such a stumbling and stuttering performance this midweek but the downside to that was not taking advantage of the defeats for the teams above. Having said that, this team found a way to find a goal to at least take a point which shows resilience and character.

There is an argument that Oliver Glasner should have been tempted to ring the changes, but this is a team that are on a run, especially away from home. While the winning run came to an end at the bottom club, they rescued a point when not playing well.

On to the next which is a the big one at Selhurst Park, and no excuses can be made for that one.

Notable individual performances by Mateus Franca off the bench, Jefferson Lerma who provided the assist and stepped into the backline, and Maxence Lacroix who is proving to be a Rolls-Royce of a defender.

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“It was a very difficult game, we were not on our top level, especially with focus and mentality, it looked like we were mentally tired. But it was nothing to do with our attitude. We fought until the last second to get the equaliser,

It’s important to keep going and keep believing, we kept going and even after scoring we wanted to win the game. The points is from the character of the team, we know we can play better but sometimes it’s not to perform at the best level but to fight and keep going until the last minute. It’s a very import ant point. We were missing the accuracy in the final third, the final pass or cross was sloppy.”

IVAN DURIC

“I think we did a very good performance, we control the game, didn’t risk anything, they score on one set-piece. It’s frustrating because I think the guys deserved a victory.

When you work with the guys for three months you know them, today we really did a good game. I think in some moments we can play better, technically we missed some really easy passes. I’m disappointed because we deserved to win the game. The guys must train and prepare for every game like we did today. Then the points will arrive.”

MATCH STATISTICS

UPCOMING FIXTURES