Crystal Palace vs Watford

Hello everyone, Hope your all well. On Saturday 7th of March 2020 I attended the Crystal Palace vs Watford game at Selhurst park with my nan and PA Vicki. This game was a London Derby and we needed as many points as possible to climb the table so a lot was at stake. Sorry this has taken a while to publish, I decided to wait until to a decision was made about the Premier league, I will talk a bit more about that at the end. The game started at 3PM and due to the Corona Virus players we’re encouraged not the exchange handshakes before the match. The first set piece was awarded to Palace in the 8th minute, after Zaha was able to send the ball out for a corner. Disappointingly nothing came from this chance. Throughout the whole 90 minutes the Watford players were using very dirty tactics, fouling our players left, right and centre. Due to this we won the first free kick in the 11th minute which was whipped into the box but eventually cleared by Watford. Watford were temporarily the stronger team around the 15 minute mark, but thankfully nothing came from their spell. Van-Aanholt and Zaha played some amazing football down the left in the first half over lapping each other, which was nice to see. In the 28th minute Benteke was able to pick the ball up just past the half way line before shrugging his defender off, he was then able to pass the ball over to Zaha who whipped the ball into the path of McArthur who finally played it into Ayew, who is currently on top form and was able to rifle the ball into the top corner!! Selhurst park erupted after we netted our first shot on goal in the game! This was the first goal at the Whitehorse lane in a while so we had the players celebrating right in front of us which hasn’t happened in ages. After this “You’re going down with the Brighton” rang around the stadium tormenting the arrogent Watford fans. In the 43rd minute Zaha was awarded a yellow card for ‘tugging back’ a Watford player, this was his first foul of the game so I was baffled how he got a yellow for it, the ref must have been a Watford fan 🙄. Zaha showed his frustration to the ref but this changed nothing. There was 3 minutes added on before half time but nothing had in this time. Early in the second half there was a foul awarded to Palace after a foul on Zaha. It looked as though Capoue put he’s head into Zaha’s head but VAR saw nothing wrong. A lot of tension was building around Selhurst park between both the players and fans but this is to be expected at a ‘London Derby’. Once again Zaha was fouled by another Watford player resulting in a yellow card - they are all very dirty players! Watford had a chance in the 59th minute but thankfully it was straight at Guaita. For the whole match Zaha was a real handful for Watford and they were really struggling to handle him. Once again in the 66th minute Guaita came to our rescue putting the ball out for a corner after a Deeney shot. In the 71st minute Hodgson made his first sub bringing Milivojevic on for McArthur - Luka also took the captains armband back from Cahill. In the 74th minute Benteke tried his classic bicycle kick finish, he was able to catch it beautifully, from where we was sitting it looked as though it went in but sadly it only hit the side netting. If that would of gone it utter scenes would have been created. Zaha had a huge opportunity in the 81st minute when he was one-on-one with a Watford defender but he took a heavy touch taking it out of his path, and easy for the Watford player to clear. There was 5 minutes added on to the end, was Palace able to hold onto this lead? Right at the end of the match Benteke and Ayew did some amazing skill in the corner to waste some time getting a lot of cheers from the home fans. Nothing else significant happened in the game and it ended 1-0 to Palace, what a 3 points that was for us! After the game, the players weren't allowed to have contact with the fans due to the Coronavirus, so we went straight home. Speaking of the Coronavirus on Friday 13th of March a decision was made that all football (including international) between now and April 4th will be postponed, this date is subject to change depending on the severity of COVID-19. This means I have no game to commentate on for the foreseeable future, if you have any other idea of posts I could write please let me know all suggestions are helpful. Make sure both you and your family stay safe in this tragic time we are going through. Thank you for reading Ellie X