Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace performance against Arsenal has given more confidence to his players to beat Aston Villa | OneFootball

Crystal Palace will face Aston Villa in just their third FA Cup semi-final this century but manager Oliver Glasner insists that his players will not be affected by the occasion.

To get to this stage of the competition Palace have beaten Stockport, Doncaster, local rivals Milwall and they put three past Marco Silva’s Fulham side in the quarter-final.

They are the only side left in the competition to have not won it but they got to the final in 2016. Despite scoring first, a Jesse Lingard strike in extra time was enough to win the cup for Manchester United.

Glasner believes that, despite the huge circumstances of the semi-final, his players are up to the task.

“It’s clear that the goal is to win the game and go to the final,” he said. “It’s a big game for us, but it’s not so important what it means for me as a person. If we win the game, it’s the third consecutive final I could play. Two with Frankfurt and now with Palace.

“But before we talk about the final, we have to focus on the semi-final against Aston Villa. They are in great shape. I think they’ve won eight of the last ten games, just lost against PSG away, and then at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday and their whole squad is available.

“It’s a football game, and we feel well prepared. We’ve got confidence, especially with the performance at the Emirates and that is how we will enter Wembley.”

As well as the importance of the game, the Austrian also noted that, although playing at Wembley is exciting for his squad, it will not change their approach.

“Of course we will enjoy playing at Wembley, because it’s the biggest stadium in England,” he said. “It’s a very traditional stadium but at the end of the day, I don’t care if we play at Selhurst, we would still try to win. If we would play at Villa Park, we would try to win.”

The Palace boss also mentioned that they have been successful against Aston Villa this season already.

“We played in the League Cup at Villa Park, and we won the game there,” he said. “So there’s no difference where we played, and the approach will be no different. Yes, the environment, the circumstances are a little bit bigger, but I don’t feel that this has any influence on us.

“Also, when I watched the players train yesterday and today, everybody is in a good mood, everybody is looking forward to it.”