Eddie Nketiah steps up after Jean-Philippe Mateta injury to seal FA Cup progress for Crystal Palace | OneFootball

The striker was sent to hospital with a nasty cut to his ear

Crystal Palace are into the hat for the FA Cup quarter-finals after a 3-1 win over Millwall, but many of those leaving Selhurst Park will still have been reeling at the high-kick on Jean-Philippe Mateta that saw the Frenchman stretchered off early and taken straight to hospital.

The Eagles can look forward to the last eight for the first time since 2020/21. Goals from Daniel Munoz, Eddie Nketiah and an own goal put them there against their 10-man south London rivals.

The main talking point, though, was goalkeeper Liam Roberts’s kick to the head of Mateta. Palace chairman Steve Parish was apoplectic when interviewed pitchside at half-time.

Extra police provision was put in place in case sparks flew in this south London derby, but that was intended to ensure all was above board off the pitch, not on it. With just five and a half minutes on the clock, Roberts produced a horrendous tackle, resembling Harald Schumacher’s on Patrick Battiston at the 1982 World Cup. Roberts kung-fu kicked the ball away but followed through, studs up, onto Jean-Philippe Mateta’s face.

Roberts was sent off after referee Michael Oliver consulted the pitch-side monitor on advice of VAR.

REUTERS

Palace’s worst fears after such safe entry into the FA Cup quarter-finals will now be a long injury lay-off for Mateta, who required an oxygen mask during several minutes of on-pitch treatment before being sent to hospital.

“I looked to see how old the keeper is — he's 30 years old and that is the most reckless challenge on a football pitch I think I've ever seen,” Parish fumed in a pitchside interview with the BBC at half-time.

“He needs to have a long, long look at himself, because he's endangering a fellow professional's life with a challenge like that.” Mateta is understood to have taken a gash to the ear and is conscious and in hospital.

Back on the pitch, the Eagles were not ruthless, by any means, with Munoz, Ben Chilwell and Mateta’s replacement, Eddie Nketiah, all squandering presentable chances shortly Millwall were reduced to 10 men.

But they were on top, and find themselves in a purple patch right now. Similar patterns of attacking play to those shown in wins over Fulham and Aston Villa in the last week were dusted off and reproduced by Oliver Glasner’s well-oiled machine.

One chance for Nketiah came when wing-back Munoz spread across the pitch to his left-sided counterpart Ben Chilwell, and the latter’s caressed volley allowed Nketiah to nip in but flick just over the bar.

No handsomely-worked moves were needed for Palace to move 2-0 up by the 40th minute, though — instead, a helping hand, twice, from former Tottenham defender Japhet Tanganga.

First, Will Hughes’s battered cross was bizarrely headed into his own net by Tanganga, with no one around him. Own goal. Then a Millwall clearance struck Tanganga and fell the way of Munoz to volley home from close range. Offside, said the linesman, before VAR overruled.

What may well concern Glasner, looking back on the match, is how his side so poorly afforded their South London rivals a lifeline when Wes Harding scored with a shot that rebounded off two Palace players and came from goalkeeper Matt Turner parrying a shot he ought to have gathered. A sloppy one to concede.

Credit is due to Millwall, who did not roll over in the second half, instead keeping up the fight and thwarting a Palace side who were that bit more disjointed and error-prone than before the interval. Choicely-worded chants about which side was the “scum of South London” had by now given way to groans from the Palace fans and the sense of a cup tie petering out, even if Millwall’s supporters allowed themselves to believe.

That was until Nketiah got his goal — a magnificent looping header, in off the post — as reward for a smart individual performance to stir the Palace fans into fine voice once more.

A late chance fell the way of Romain Esse, against the side who sold him to Palace in January, but he didn’t get hold of it and Roberts’s replacement, Lukas Jensen, gathered with ease. Palace were already through with ease.