Huddersfield 0-2 Crystal Palace - 17th March 2018

Huddersfield 0-2 Crystal Palace

Snow swirled around the stadium but Crystal Palace departed with a warm glow thanks to a well-earned victory. A first-half goal by James Tomkins followed by a successful second-half penalty by Luka Milivojevic lifted Roy Hodgson’s team out of the relegation zone and to within a point of Huddersfield, who had hoped to distance themselves from the squabbling near the bottom of the table but instead remain very much in the fray, just a point above Palace.

The only down side for Hodgson was that Jeffrey Schlupp was forced off with an injury in the 20th minute and, more alarmingly, Wilfried Zaha limped off in the 89th minute. The winger had been excellent on his return to the Palace starting lineup after an enforced five-week layoff and if his latest injury make him miss more matches, Palace will suffer.

Palace travelled to Huddersfield on the back of a seven-game winless streak but apparently full of confidence, the returns of Zaha and Mamadou Sakho, plus the substitutes Yohan Cabaye and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, giving Hodgson extra cause for optimism. He evidently sent out his team to attack from the outset.

Barely one minute had elapsed before a corner by Milivojevic provoked mayhem in the home box. Huddersfield scrambled that one away but were less vigilant when Milivojevic delivered another in the 23rd minute. Steve Mounié’s attempt to clear at the near post amounted to nothing more than an embarrassing decoy that duped his own team-mates, allowing the ball to run through to Tomkins. Jonas Lössl made an instinctive close-range save from Tomkins’ first shot but was helpless to prevent the Palace defender from poking the rebound into the net from two yards.

Palace had already threatened from open play, their fleet of tricky dribblers making constant mischief. Zaha, inevitably, was the peskiest. When he pounced on a loose ball in the 18th minute he slalomed between two opponents and dabbed a nice pass through to Christian Benteke, whose shot brought a brilliant block from Christopher Schindler, who had earlier made a similar one to deflect a shot by Zaha over.

Once they had the lead, Palace had reason to believe victory would be theirs. Huddersfield, after all, have failed to score in more than half their Premier League matches this season, including against Swansea last week, when they played most of the match against 10 men. But David Wagner’s side do not duck from a challenge. They immediately began hunting an equaliser here.

But the hosts lacked precision and Palace’s centre-backs, Tomkins and Sakho, easily repelled a succession of approximate crosses. And Tom Ince made no progress against Palace’s impressive young right-back, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, before being withdrawn on the hour.

By then Huddersfield still had not mustered a shot on target. And they might have been two goals down if Benteke had been awarded a penalty after he collapsed in the box when Mathias Jorgensen wrapped an arm around him.

Moments later, Tomkins nearly enriched his goals portfolio when another corner found its way to him via a weak header by Jorgensen. But this time Mounié rescued his team, booting a shot from Tomkins off the line. Mounié then came close to doubling the value of that block by scoring at the other end, but flashed a snapshot just wide after a good run and cross by Florent Hadergjonaj.

That was as good as it got for Huddersfield. Palace secured the points in the 68th minute, after Jorgensen sabotaged a counter-attack by upending Andros Townsend. Miliovjevic sent Lössl the wrong way from the spot.

Guardian