Palace Pay Price For Missed Chances In Strasbourg

The Eagles return from their latest European trip after defeat in France in a game they found a way to lose after missing several guilt edged opportunities, including two open goals.

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 12 Christantus UCHE, 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 21 Romain ESSE, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 44 Walter BENITEZ, 55 Justin DEVENNEY, 59 Rio CARDINES

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES –, 17 Mathis AMOUGOU, 20 Martial GODO, 27 Sam AMO-AMEYAW, 41 Rabby NZINGOULA, 50 Stefan BAJIC, 60 Gabriel KERKAERT, 80 Felix LEMARECHAL, 83 Rafael LUIS

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“When you twice have an empty goal in front of you and you miss the goal twice hitting the post, you should be 3-1 up. Then we have the big chance against the keeper and then in the next action we are 2-1 down. It has happened too many times this season when we did not decide the game when we could. And, of course, even after the free kick we were not sharp enough. In the end I think that we lacked one or two percent and that is why we lost against a good Strasbourg team.”

TYRICK MITCHELL

“We created some decent chances, the two open goals were great chances, but we just have to be more clinical. If we score that second goal I think we take away the three points. We know in every game we will get chances and every game we can win. We step onto the pitch knowing that we can take away three points from every team but today that didn’t happen.”

MATCH STATISTICS

TEB VERDICT

This was a second defeat in the Conference League for Palace who drop to 18^th place in the table with two games left to play, and they only have themselves to blame by not taking chances in this fixture in France.

The visitors were guilty of a slow start but they worked their way in to the game, going in at the break with a lead courtesy of a good goal from Tyrick Mitchell. The second half was much the same, Palace took time to get going but they were made to rue the fact that they could not convert two open goals along with several other good chances.

It puts the Eagles in a precarious position, with two games left to play which really need to be victories, so the pressure will be on against sides that Palace will be expected to beat.

It was perhaps hoped that with games coming thick and fast right the way through to the end of the year, Oliver Glasner will have had an opportunity to mix up his starting line ups. He did just that tonight which is perhaps with one eye already on a congested fixture list, but it did not quite work out against Strasbourg.

Glasner will be rightly upset by this result. Creating chances is not a problem, it is converting them that is and you cannot win games without being prolific in front of goal, as this game rightly showed.

There will be little time to reflect as the Eagles fly straight back to prepare for the visit on Manchester United on Sunday.

UPCOMING FIXTURES