Home of football statistics and historyCrystal Palace is one of the oldest, if not the oldest football club in the world, being founded in 1861. During the club’s 164 years of existence they have never managed to lift the FA Cup. It was just not meant to be. In today’s era of the English Big Six, massive spending by wealthy owners, and financial dominance by the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, and even Tottenham, no one had Crystal Palace winning a trophy on their bingo card this season.
Yet, the impossible has happened. You could even say that during their entire FA Cup run, Crystal Palace had a style of play established for cup competitions. It was a dominant run. The Eagles looked like a team that could take any opponent down, and give every, each, and one of them a run for their money. It was what happened.
The season didn’t start well for the London outfit. Taking home only three points from eight matches made people doubt in the ability of Oliver Glasner to keep Crystal Palace up after the team was a member of the PL for over a decade continuously. Luckily for Crystal Palace and their fans, Steve Parish, and his associates are a calm group of people who knew what they had in the Austrian manager. Another important factor for Crystal Palace’s FA Cup aspirations was the fact that the competition starts in January for teams from the Premier League. By that time the team was upping their form match in match out, and sports betting outlets such as Stake even had them competing for European places.
The spark was ignited at the right moment. While a place in Europe was not achieved through a league position, after the initial struggles, the team was safe from relegation through the better part of the year, helping the team to put more focus on the cup competition ahead of them. As we said, the year started bad for Crystal Palace, and after selling some of their top players in Michael Olise to Bayern Munich and Joachim Andersen to Fulham, it was evident that others will have to step up.
For one player in particular, stepping up is not a problem. With Olise gone, for Eberechi Eze it was clear that he is now the main creative force in the team. The English international was already an established PL player by all means, but during the 2024/25 season he truly managed to elevate his game and to become a game changer around whom opponents need to plan. At the moment of writing of this article, Eze has played 32 games for Palace this season scoring 7 goals and adding 8 assists. As far as Crystal Palace players go, only Mateta scored more goals with 14, and no other player has made a similar number of assists.
Eberechi Eze used the departure of Michael Olise to make himself the centrepiece of Crystal Palace’s offense. Together with Mateta and Sarr, he created a trio of attackers that were at times nightmares for opponents especially on counter attack. The style of play implemented by Oliver Glasner was ideal for Eze, and that was best seen during Crystal Palace’s FA Cup run.
They say that a big game player was not created, but that he was born. The same can’t be said for Eze. Today, Eze plays for Palace as an attacking midfielder and a winger. He’s also a member of the English national team, but hasn’t broken into the first 11 of the Three Lions as of now. After coming through ranks at QPR, Eze has made a name for himself in the Championship during the 2019/20 season when he scored 14 goals and was the player of the year at Queens Park Rangers. That was enough for the Eagles to part with £17 million and bring Eberechi to Selhurst Park.
After a strong start to his CP career in which he played 34 games, scored 4 goals and assisted 6 more, during the 2020/21 season, his 2021/22 season was injury plagued and he only managed 13 appearances contributing only 2 goal involvements. What followed were two seasons in which Eze combined for 21 goals and 8 assists in the PL. By this time he was an established Premier League star and many believed that a big PL club would come for his services.
Luckily for CP, Eze was more focused on becoming that man for the London outfit, and he delivered. We already told you about his PL performance, but what he did through the Palace’s FA Cup run was nothing short of amazing. A true man of the moment, Eze came through for his team in every round starting with the FA Cup third round where they faced Stockport County at home.
Interestingly enough, Palace and Stockport were the last two teams drawn during the drawing out of the balls for the third round. For Palace it was a good draw in the hands of Dion Dublin and Mark Hughes. For Stockport it was one of those chances to take out a big PL team in the third round. They were the first team to sense the danger that Crystal Palace would pose throughout the competition. A 1:0 win was all that it took for Palace to win this match with the result never coming in jeopardy. A game of full control. As you can already guess, the man to decide the tie was none other than Eberechi Eze in the fourth minute of the match.
After the win against Stockport County, the Eagles were drawn to play away against Doncaster. It was a cold February day in Yorkshire, but the Eagles were more than warmed up for it. It was already known at that moment that in case of a win they will play against Millwall. It was no wonder that the fans decided to sing South London is Ours while playing in Yorkshire. The duel vs. Doncaster was an easy 2:0 win for Palace in a match where Glasner decided to rest Eze who had a minor injury at the time too.
As their fans wanted it, in the 1/8 Finals Palace was drawn against Millwall. It was a local derby in every sense of that word, and it was not a pretty game by any standards. First, Mateta got injured after receiving a blow to the head from the Millwall goalkeeper. The game was interrupted as the medical team helped Mateta off the field. Roberts got a straight red card for his, but it was evident that Crystal Palace players were a bit shaken after what transpired. Yet, they managed to collect themselves and with an own goal from Tanganga and one from Munoz managed to enter the second half with a 2:1 lead after conceding one late in the first half. It was Nketiah who sealed a 3:1 win, and helped Crystal Palace advance to another round of the cup. To that point in the FA Cup, Millwall was the first opponent from Championship, and the best adversary so far, making the buoyant celebrations after the game the loudest to date.
What followed is the creation of a big player. Fulham was the next team for Palace to play in the FA Cup, and it was finally time for some PL competition in the quarterfinals. Fulham managed to move past the holders Manchester United, and were also eager to make a mark in the competition. Both fans, pundits, and most of all folks who enjoy some betting on soccer expected a cagey encounter. Maybe they would have won if it was not for Eze. A local hero decided to save the day once again. With two quick, and equally amazing goals, Eze gave Crystal Palace advantage at halftime with his 34th and 38th minute bangers. Nketiah was the one to seal the deal once again to make the game an easy 0:3 for Crystal Palace. It was at that moment that opponents who were scheduled to play the semi-finals that they had a true adversary on their hands more than capable to win any cup tie.
Oliver Glasner had his boys tuned to play in the elimination rounds of the cup competitions, and when the 3:0 routing of Aston Villa was done, the number of doubters were close to zero. Eze once again scored, helping his team in taking advantage. After 1:0 at halftime it was easy for Crystal Palace to wrap up this game as they were a team built to destroy opponents from counter attacking positions with the likes of Eze, Sarr, Mateta, Munoz, and Mitchell giving speed on the flanks. Unai Emery and his Aston Villa team have reached the quarter finals of the Champions League this season, and are still in the run for another qualification, which was just another testimony to how good Glasner had his boys playing.
The only game left for Palace to win after defeating the likes of Stockport County, Doncaster Rovers, Millwall, Fulham, and Aston Villa was the final villain dressed in sky blue of Manchester City – Pep Guardiola. City had a dreadful season by their standards, and it was expected of them to win one of the fans at Wembley during the FA Cup final. Guardiola is well known as a serial winner and despite Palace playing the best football of all FA Cup teams, people believed that Pep will find an antidote for their style, and what Glasner brings to the field.
What happened in the final was everything but what Pep could have predicted. The mastermind tactician from Spain was given the reins of the game. The possession was there. There were a few chances too. What else was there, one quick burst by Eze, one on one with the goalkeeper and 1:0 Crystal Palace. From the moment the English international put his team on the scoresheet, the game was over. Astute defending by Munoz, Guehi, and above all else, Henderson, kept Haaland and the boys at bay.
Eze was once again the start of the evening. It takes a unique ability to be a hero for a team that has not won an FA Cup in their 164 years of existence. Plenty will be said and written about the 2024/25 FA Cup final. The names of Eberechi Eze and Oliver Glasner will be written with golden letters in the history books. Since the 2007/08 season when Portsmouth won the FA Cup, only three underdogs have managed to beat the big dogs. Those close to Palace remember their lost final in 2016, but luckily, they have now managed to get one back the same way Leicester did in 2020/21 and Wigan before them in 2021/13.
What’s left now for Glasner and Eze is to build on their success. This will be a hard task. Crystal Palace is not among London’s richest teams, and in the past they have had their best players poached by bigger fish. It is a well known fact that both Arsenal and Liverpool have Eze on their radar and that he has quite an affordable £68m clause in his contract. The Eagles’ midfield maestro Adam Wharton is also desired by the likes of Manchester United, Newcastle United and Liverpool alike. Mateta is shortlisted by Bayern Munich and Arsenal, while Munoz is eyed by City as a Kyle Walker replacement. It would appear that no Crystal Palace player is safe as they’ve barely hung onto Marc Guehi last summer and he will not be lacking suitors this time around either. Also, we shouldn’t forget that Dean Henderson has a buy back clause by United and Amorim is desperate for a new goalkeeper.
At the moment two things are sure – Glasner will be with Crystal Palace next year, and no one can take the FA Cup glory from Crystal Palace ever more. Whether we will be watching a new Palace with more than a few unknown faces next year remains to be seen. Either way, we’re looking forward to another story similar to the one Eze and Palace have carved for themselves.
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