By Alex Easley
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| Connor Wickham's goal secured an FA Cup final showdown with Manchester United for Crystal Palace. |
Crystal Palace, sponsored by Mansion Group, that operates well-known casino sites such as Casino.com; will face
Manchester United at Wembley in a repeat of the 1990 FA Cup final after beating
Watford 2-1 in Sunday’s semi-final at the national stadium.
Yannick Bolasie headed the Eagles
in front early, but Troy Deeney levelled the game 10 minutes after the break.
Just six minutes later Connor
Wikcham popped up with the all-important winning goal to send his side to their
first FA Cup final since that 1990 replay loss to United after a 3-3 draw.
Alan Pardew scored the winner for
Palace in the semi-finals that year and the opening goal here, brought back
memories of that famous goal against Liverpool.
Pardew was on hand that day to
head home after a near post flick-on and pretty much the exact same corner routine
was used to break the Watford defence with six minutes gone.
Yohan Cabaye put the corner into
the unmarked near post area to Damien Delaney, who the flicked a looping header
towards the far-post which was nodded home by Bolasie quite bravely.
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| Yannick Bolasie heads home the opener for Palace at Wembley. |
The Hornets struggled to deal
with the pressure of the Wembley occasion in the early stages of the game, but
were almost gifted a chance to get back into the contest on 19 minutes.
Allan Nyom whipped in a quite
superb cross from the right that caused panic in Palace’s backline as Scott Dann
ducked out of the way and Joel Ward almost scored an own goal like Chris
Smalling did yesterday, but it thankfully drifted wide of the net.
Watford’s flow was disrupted even
further on 32 minutes when French midfielder Etienne Capoue was nearly in tears
as he was stretchered off with what looked like a serious knee injury.
Palace looked the more
threatening of the two teams again after the break with Bolasie going down the
left side on 49 minutes but his shot from a tight angle was deflected over the
bar by the foot of Costel Pantilimon.
Watford did level the scores at
1-1 on 54 minutes with their first effort on target of the game as Deeney
scored his 11th goal of the season.
A corner from the left was swung
into the edge of the six yard box and the Watford skipper used his strength to
hold off Dann and flick the ball into the Palace net.
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| Watford captain Troy Deeney celebrates scoring the equalizer. |
The Watford end of Wembley were
now in full voice, but they were silenced back into their seats just six
minutes later.
Wickham has failed to set the
world alight since joining from Sunderland for £7million but he repaid some of
that price tag with this Wembley goal.
Pape Souare found half a yard to
swing a seemingly mediocre ball into the Watford box, Wickham had pulled onto
the diminutive Nathan Ake and he towered above him to skilfully head home from
12 yards.
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| Connor Wickham headed in the winner for Crystal Palace. |
Watford had only won one of their
last nine Premier League matches and confidence looked low as they tried to
mount a late rally.
Their best chance to fell to
Odion Ighalo with eight minutes left but he snatched at a presentable
opportunity from a Deeney flick on.
Wilfried Zaha should have made
the last few minutes more comfortable than they were but he failed to finish
off an epic 50 yard run into the Watford box and was similarly wasteful when
firing into the side netting from a tight angle.
One last opportunity fell to
substitute Adlene Guedioura for Watford but much like Ighalo minutes earlier,
his finish failed to test Wayne Hennessey.
Palace held out and their fans
celebrated wildly at the full-time whistle. They will be returning to Wembley
on Saturday May 21 to take on the 11-time winners.
TEAM LINE-UPS
Crystal Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Dann, Delaney, Souaré, Jedinak,
Cabaye, Zaha, Bolasie, Puncheon, Wickham
Subs Used: McArthur, Sako, Adebayor
Watford: Pantilimon, Nyom, Cathcart, Britos, Aké, Abdi, Capoue, Watson,
Jurado, Ighalo, Deeney
Subs Used: Suárez, Guédioura, Anya
MAN OF THE MATCH: Yannick Bolasie
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