Goals from Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr and Eddie Nketiah fired Crystal Palace to a 3-0 victory in the FA Cup quarter-finals over Fulham at Craven Cottage
Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner insists his side still have more than the FA Cup to play for after booking their place in the semi-finals. Goals from Eberechi Eze, Ismaila Sarr and Eddie Nketiah fired Palace to a 3-0 last-eight victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage, their fifth successive win in all competitions.
The Eagles have won their last six away games in all competitions without conceding, the first English top-flight side in history to do so, and Aston Villa stand between them and a place in their third FA Cup final.
But asked if the cup was now the “big goal” for the season, Glasner retorted: “No, sorry, why? The semi-final is in four weeks, we have two games and in the Premier League there is a lot to achieve. We are on a great run in the Premier League.
“Of course the big goal was winning (against Fulham), the next big goal is winning at Southampton.” Palace were runners-up in their previous FA Cup finals – both times to Manchester United – losing 1-0 in a 1990 replay and 2-1 in extra time nine years ago.
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Saturday’s quarter-final was Palace’s first competitive encounter since beating Ipswich in the Premier League on March 8 and Glasner conceded his side looked “rusty” in the first 20 minutes but “never lost belief”.
Palace matched their best Premier League points tally, 49, under Glasner last season and, with 39 and 10 games left to play, could be on course to crack a half-century for the first time in the Austrian’s first full campaign with the south Londoners.
“The season is not over,” Glasner added. “If this is the end today, I wouldn’t be happy. I think it’s just the start of our crunch time of the last two months. The good thing is that we are in a good momentum.
“We have many games to get into our best shape again, because I think (at Fulham), especially at the beginning, we were far away from this.”
Fulham now turn their attention back to the Premier League and Tuesday night’s trip to Arsenal. Cottagers manager Marco Silva said: “We have nine games ahead of us and big games ahead and we have to react.
“If we have to cry, if we have to be sad (on Saturday) afternoon and night, from (Sunday) we have to work as hard as we can, even harder than before, to react like we should as a team.
“The season has been great before this game. We lost an important one, it’s a big punch in our stomach, but for ourselves it’s a moment for us to pull together, to step in like we did before and move forward. The last eight weeks of the season are going to be really important for us.”
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