Sublime Crystal Palace set up shot at FA Cup history and show others the way | OneFootball

This is what the FA Cup is supposed to be about. Crystal Palace are now one game away from history, after Eberechi Eze emphasised how he is the present, and maybe the future. You could say the same about Adam Wharton. The first won this semi-final against Aston Villa, the other ran it. Ismaila Sarr then offered the flourishes. All three players crucially elevated a supreme team performance, on an epic day for the club.

Villa meanwhile couldn’t get to that level, as if recent efforts have finally caught up with them. For Palace, this was everything, and you could tell. Eze and Wharton stood out but the collective effort was utterly immense.

There were so many blocks and ultra-committed challenges, of the type that only come when something greater is on the line; when players go deep into themselves. This would be of profound value, after all. Palace are the only club left in this FA Cup that have never won a major trophy.

Villa are now out, after a 3-0 defeat where they didn’t give the best of themselves. It was the one pity about an otherwise vibrant occasion at Wembley, where you could feel how much it meant to both clubs.

Villa just couldn’t transfer that desire in the way they wanted. They are almost vintage victims of their own success in that sense. They’ve had so much on the line of late, and the chance to end a trophy drought that this represented has almost been too much amid a push for Champions League qualification, as well as a Champions League quarter-final itself.

This does not take away from Palace’s victory, though. They were good value and this was a 3-0 that really could have been a 4-0 or or 5-0 on chances. There was even a missed penalty from Jean-Philippe Mateta.

Whatever the figures on the scoreboard, though, the reality was that Palace did a number on Villa.

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Crystal Palace could celebrate a historic victory (The FA via Getty Images)

It is credit to their manager, Oliver Glasner. You can see why Palace quoted Bayern Munich so high a figure when they came for him in the summer. It is said to be well over £20m. If he wins the FA Cup, to follow Eintracht Frankfurt’s 2022 Europa League, it will be priceless.

He has already given this club just a third major final in their history and it stems from maximising the burgeoning quality of this fine team.

Glasner had been privately confident before the game, given that he hadn’t lost any of four games to Unai Emery’s Villa. The feeling was that Palace are set up well to play them and the Austrian had been working on a plan to work around Villa’s superior midfield.

Wharton had been central to that, literally. It was one of those great defensive midfield displays. He seemed to constantly be in the right place to win the ball, before then doing something productive with it. Repeat this over the course of a game and you gradually shift emotional momentum as much as the momentum of a match.

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Adam Wharton was supreme for Palace (Getty Images)

Villa just couldn’t get a proper foothold, even after moments that felt game-changing, like Tyrick Mitchell’s early mis-kick or Mateta’s missed penalty. Palace always had more to give. There was always that man there.

Any time someone like Marco Asensio worked their way into the box, Maxence Lacroix or Chris Richards appeared. There were so many of those sudden blocks or interceptions, delivered with utter conviction.

There was then the showpiece moment, that essentially put Palace in English football’s showcase event.

On 31 minutes, Sarr drove the ball across the Villa box, with the sort of delivery that just demanded to be hammered. Eze responded. He ran on and whipped the most emphatic and swerving strike into the net. It was as powerful as it was aesthetically pleasing. The ball did end up going down the centre of the goal but, in real time, it looked like Emi Martinez had no chance.

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Eberechi Eze’s opening goal was sublime (Getty Images)

You maybe couldn’t quite say the same for the game-clinching second. After Martinez’s movement had made Mateta’s penalty more difficult, to the point he hit it wide after a foul on Eze, it seemed to catch the goalkeeper himself out. The footwork wasn’t quite right and Sarr evidently spotted the opening, driving the ball into the corner.

Sarr’s breakaway second, to make it 3-0 in stoppage time, was just a final touch; an opportunity for Palace to properly celebrate this win.

The truth was that they never looked nervous in any way. They were too on it. While some of that is the sort of thing that happens when players lift themselves for a day of this magnitude, a collective display like this is only possible out of something greater.

Glasner has fashioned a fine team, that has grown with the season. To think there were doubts at the start of the campaign, when Palace initially struggled after the loss of Michael Olise.

No one at Selhurst Park was ever worried. They had full confidence in their fine manager, and the talents of this team.

Palace now look like they are brimming with vibrant quality. While the usual response to this is to survey the number of players that wealthier clubs would look to buy – and we are now talking Eze, Wharton, Mateta and Marc Guehi at the very least – there is something worthier to discuss.

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Ismaila Sarr scored twice at Wembley to send his side into the FA Cup final (PA Wire)

Palace are what a lot of upper-level English teams should be. They have built on and honed the abundant talent in their south London area, to create a feisty and sophisticated team.

There is real identity and now, there is a real chance to create a moment that the club’s history can be wrapped around.

Meanwhile, Villa fans could barely look, with many having left before the final whistle. That is entirely understandable.

A danger grows that this previously promising season peters out into little. All that is left is now the push for the Champions League, which is one of the very reasons they were cost this chance in the first place.

It is one of the problems of modern football that qualification for the premier continental competition is worth so much more, in pure financial terms, than getting to the FA Cup final. Those at Villa will be consoling themselves with that, although some within the club were even remarking how that shouldn’t be the case.

You only have to look at Palace. They have also become a team to watch. They now have a day to look forward to.

After two previous lost FA Cup finals, both against Manchester United, they have this third opportunity. They certainly look like they know what this is all about.