It says it all: the Wembley scoreboard proclaims Crystal Palace’s FA Cup semi-final success
Crystal Palace are heading to the third FA Cup final in the club’s history, after a magnificent Wembley victory which was a triumph for the Eagles fans as well as their players
Moments after referee Anthony Taylor blew the final whistle on Crystal Palace’s magnificent 3-0 FA Cup semi-final win over Aston Villa at Wembley yesterday evening, looking down from the posh seats on the scene before him was Steve Coppell.
Fans’ victory: the Palace tifosi impressed with their own high-energy Wembley performance
Coppell had a smile of proud contentment.
Coppell, of course, had been Palace manager in 1990, the year of that astonishing Cup semi-final comeback against mighty Liverpool, and when the Eagles had forced the then great Manchester United to a Wembley final replay. But what he had just witnessed, Coppell’s smile seemed to indicate, was a performance to match those, at least.
Yesterday was a great day for football in Croydon, with the non-league side, Croydon FC, the Trams, earlier in the afternoon sealing their place in their own end-of-season play-offs.
There have been few greater days in Palace’s history than what played out at Wembley, on and off the pitch yesterday, where the Holmesdale Fanatics were loud, proud and colourful for hours – before, during and after the match. Villa’s fans, in abject defeat, had largely vacated their end of the national stadium even before the final whistle.
For Palace fans, the day had begun in central London, enjoying a pint in the sunshine in Covent Garden or being rewarded for their patience by a wave from the players as they left their West End hotel and boarded the team coach.
London takeover: Eagles fans gathered pre-match in Covent Garden
“The Holmesdale Fanatics are a treasure to this club,” Selhurst Park fanzine Five Year Plan noted of the orchestrated flares, balloons and noise generated by their tifosi.
“What they did at Wembley – the organisation, co-ordination, creativity and dedication it took – we can’t thank them enough…
“Can’t wait to see what they do for the final!”
The enormity of what this Palace team has achieved cannot be understated. All of the other cup semi-finallists in 2025 are past champions of Europe. Palace are in there pitching for the first major trophy in the club’s history.
They were the underdogs against a Villa side that this season had beaten Bayern Munich, pushed Paris St Germain close in the Champions League just over a week earlier, and had been pressing for a top-five finish in the Premier League. Yet Oliver Glasner’s Palace destroyed them with a masterclass of energetic, pacy, joyful football.
The performance left the football pundits at a loss: they could have named any one of Palace’s players as the Man of the Match. The game finished 3-0, but it ought to have been at least four (Mateta’s first-half effort ought to have stood), and Palace even missed a penalty, too.
Masterful: Oliver Glasner has a special relationship with Palace fans as well as his players
Eberechi Eze had set the tone with his screamer of a goal after half an hour.
Ismaila Sarr scored two, neither of those goals too shabby, either, the second, deep into injury time, prompting the exit of the majority of Villa fans.
Jean-Philippe Mateta was a giant across the big Wembley pitch, running the Villa defence ragged. Young midfielder Adam Wharton was, according to Wayne Rooney, “the best player on the pitch”.
And Villa never managed to get back into the game, as Eagles goalkeeper Dean Henderson made a series of strong saves and skipper Marc Guehi marshalling the Palace defence calmly and with authority.
As one Eagles fan put it: “That might be the greatest performance in the history of Crystal Palace Football Club. The occasion. The level of opponent. Absolutely incredible.”
Former Palace captain, Geoff Thomas, seemed to agree. “It’s been a fantastic team performance. Solid at the back. Clinical up front. Made a very good Villa side look average.
“Congratulations Crystal Palace FC. Now go and make Palace history.”
Glasner, the secret’s out, is a masterful manager.
Proud contentment: Steve Coppell’s smile at the end of the game spoke volumes
His relationship with the fans – such as when he paused to take selfies with supporters after the game – is only surpassed by his relationship with his players. Glasner knows that there’s still another game to win, against Nottingham Forest or Manchester City, on May 17.
In the Palace changing room after the game, after he and the squad had returned from their well-deserved lap of honour, Glasner summed up what is being achieved.
“These three minutes out there, guys. You can’t buy… You can have billions of pounds. You can’t buy, guys. You have to deserve it. To walk half the pitch and get all this happiness, guys, this love from the fans – you deserved it.”
No wonder Stevie Coppell was smiling.
Meanwhile, down in the South East Counties Football League first division, Croydon FC came back from 1-0 at home against Canterbury City to draw 1-1 in their final fixture of the regular season, and so seal a place in the promotion play-offs.
Kieran Rufus, the club captain, tweeted, “To be in a Croydon FC team finishing in the play-offs and highest position since 2000 is something I’ll look back on in years to come in my home town and be proud of.
“Now it’s play-offs with nothing to fear, everything to gain. Bring the noise! Up the Trams!”
Those one-leg play-offs will see Croydon travel to arch rivals Forest Hill Park on Wednesday night (April 30), in a sudden-death game which will see the winners playing either Soul Tower Hamlets or Sheppey Sports in the promotion decider on Saturday May 3.
Now if the Trams could get some extra enthusiasm from their mates among the Eagles tifosi, it might just help them get over the line, too.
Read more: Seven heavenly seasons’ finishes: but which is your favourite?
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