Following yesterday’s clash between Crystal Palace and Newcastle United, here are the instant reactions from both managers.
Crystal Palace hosted Newcastle United at Selhurst Park on Sunday February 4, with both sides playing out a score draw.
Mohamed Diame found the back of the net in the 22nd minute but Palace did find themselves back on level terms when Luka Milivojevic scored from the penalty spot after Ciaran Clark was penalised for pulling Christian Benteke’s shirt.
Reactions to the award of the penalty were certainly wide ranging.
Teams:
Crystal Palace:
Hennessey, Fosu-Mensah, Kelly (Sakho 45+2), Tomkins, van Aanholt, Townsend, Milivojevic, Cabaye, McArthur, Zaha, Benteke.
Substitutes:
Ward, Sorloth, Lee Chung-yong, Souare, Henry, Riedewald.
Newcastle:
Darlow, Yedlin, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett, Ritchie, Shelvey, Diame (Hayden 65), Kenedy (Atsu 57), Perez (Merino 80), Gayle.
Substitutes:
Murphy, Dubravka, Manquillo, Lejeune.
Speaking to the BBC’s cameras a short time after match day referee Andre Marriner blew the final whistle, Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson explained.
‘It will have to be sufficient for me. The referee gave the penalty and I am just happy we scored it this time – the rules of the game prevent people from pulling shirts.’
Adding.
‘The way we were playing in the first half I would certainly have taken a point. After watching the second half and watching us dominate the game as we did, I feel we were unlucky not to have got all three points in the end because our second half performance merited that. It’s a point that doesn’t help either of us enormously but we’ve just got to make sure that when we can’t win, we draw.’
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez in his comparative interview explained.
‘He was pushing my player and my player was pulling. We cannot do it, but I can see a lot of penalties not given. We then changed everything because obviously they had more confidence and they were pushing, we knew that they have very good players up front. We needed to be strong in defence and it was difficult. We did well coming here and getting one point. We were controlling the game in the first half, the three offensive players they have, we did well in defence.’
Adding.
‘We had a couple of chances and the counter attack early in the second half could have changed everything. We needed to defend a little bit better.’
