The facts below throw up mixed results in the head-to-head record, Palace holding an obvious edge overall but Watford boasting wins in the past two cup clashes, which came back-to-back in 2008 and 2009.
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LONDON (AP) – Twenty-six years on from its one and only appearance in the FA Cup final, Crystal Palace has another chance to win its first major trophy following a 2-1 defeat of Watford in the semifinals at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. It had also been a controversial decision by Flores to keep faith with Pantilimon in the FA Cup ahead of Heurelho Gomes but the former Sunderland goalkeeper then went some way to justifying that decision by brilliantly saving a powerful low Bolasie effort with his legs.
Every Palace fan will have the 2015-16 road to Wembley ingrained in their memory.
“Watford arrive having won just one of their last 8 PL games, losing five, and have kept only one clean sheet in their last seven games”. Both teams will have been more than happy with the draw, which makes picking a victor or trying to work out what will happen, all the more hard. [The press] have given him a tough time this year. And so much to lose.
Flores said: “When we started the season (our) main target was to stay in the Premier League”.
The Eagles; who have only recorded one league victory this calendar year [2016], have reaped the benefits of winger Yannick Bolasie’s recent upturn in form, with the DR Congo worldwide bagging Alan Pardew side’s late equaliser against Arsenal last weekend. Their opponents that day? If he ends up leaving, it will be Watford’s loss. It wasn’t quite the 14-game duration of this season but nonetheless was still not great.
Except that was not the score, it was 1-0, with Martin Kelly grabbing the only goal of the game.
Wickham converted from Papa Souare’s cross to give Alan Pardew’s side the lead for a second time and though Scott Dann avoided being sent off, Palace edged into May’s final. Fans of a superstitious persuasion will be hoping those events mean something… even though they probably don’t.
Victory was nothing less than Palace had deserved after a performance of passion and ambition against a strangely subdued Watford team.
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Going forward, it would be the ideal time for striking pair Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo to rediscover their scoring boots after suffering a dry spell over the course of the second half of the season.
