How have the current Palace squad previously fared at Wembley?

Club

24 Apr 2025

There's not long to go now before Crystal Palace take on Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final (Saturday, 26th April, 17:15 BST), but who has competed there before and how well have they done under the famous arch?

Palace have of course painted the new Wembley red and blue on multiple occasions and have managed to taste success in the 2013 play-off final and the 2016 FA Cup semi-final, with only Joel Ward from the current squad to have featured in both of those games.

The Palace stalwart has also played under the arch in the FA Cup final of 2016, against Tottenham Hotspur when they were at Wembley, and also against Chelsea in Palace’s most recent FA Cup semi-final in 2022. Ward’s tally of appearances at Wembley stands at five, with two memorable wins.

Dean Henderson has made his first two appearances at Wembley while he was on loan at Shrewsbury Town during the 2018/19 campaign. Both came in the space of a month as he and his Shrewsbury side made the final of the EFL Trophy and also the League One play-off final.

Unfortunately for Henderson, Salop lost both of these clashes. His next appearance at Wembley came in England colours, as he made his debut as a second-half substitute for Nick Pope in November 2020, in a 3-0 win against the Republic of Ireland. He has three appearances in total at Wembley.

Henderson has made the same amount of appearances at Wembley as fellow England international Tyrick Mitchell, who originally started his football journey at grassroots side AFC Wembley.

Mitchell’s three appearances came in the space of just under a month in 2022, where he earned a debut off the bench for England against Switzerland, before starting against Ivory Coast a few days later. He then stepped out onto the turf once more in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

Captain Marc Guéhi boasts the most appearances at Wembley of any permanent Palace player in the current squad, with his first ever appearance also coming against Switzerland in March 2022.

He featured from the start in this game, as well as in the FA Cup semi-final against his former side Chelsea a few weeks later.

Since then, the centre-back has gone on to earn 23 England caps - with six of those games being at Wembley. He featured in wins over the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Malta, Finland and Latvia.

Eddie Nketiah also has notable Wembley experience under his belt, including lifting two trophies. The first of his appearances came for Arsenal in the 2020 FA Cup final against Chelsea, where he came on as a late substitute to see the game over the line.

He then started a month later in the FA Community Shield, leading the line for the Gunners as they eventually won the 2020/21 season opener on penalties. He then lifted the Community Shield once more in August 2023, before making his solitary England appearance at Wembley in October 2023 against Australia.

Fellow England international and Palace No. 10 Ebere Eze has racked up four appearances at Wembley, with his first coming in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea.

His first England appearance at Wembley came against Iceland ahead of the 2024 UEFA European Championship, and then two more under the arch followed against Finland and Latvia - where he found the back of the net.

Striker Jean-Philippe Mateta’s single Wembley appearance came in the 2022 FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, where he played 55 minutes before being replaced by Jordan Ayew. The in-form Frenchman would be looking to go one better than his previous outing.

Academy graduate Nathaniel Clyne has been at the club for nearly a decade over two spells, though his first appearance at Wembley came in November 2014 where he made his England debut against Slovenia.

He then had another appearance against Lithuania later that season for England, before racking up further games at Wembley against Switzerland, Estonia, France and the Netherlands.

Clyne also featured in the 2016 League Cup final for Liverpool, where they finished runners-up on penalties against Manchester City. In the 2022 FA Cup semi-final, he was an unused substitute for Palace, bringing his tally of Wembley appearances up to seven in total.

Colombian maestro Jefferson Lerma has a single Wembley appearance to his name, which came on Boxing Day in 2018 when Bournemouth faced Spurs.

His midfield partner Will Hughes has multiple appearances at Wembley under his belt, with the first coming at just 19 years of age as he started the 2013/14 Championship play-off final for Derby County when they were narrowly edged out by Queens Park Rangers.

He then made two further appearances at Wembley for Watford in the Premier League when facing Spurs between 2017 and 2019, before two more appearances in April and May of 2019 when Watford made it to the final of the FA Cup.

Hughes did not feature for Palace in the 2022 FA Cup semi-final, marking his tally of Wembley appearances at five.

Recent recruit on loan Ben Chilwell has a vast amount of Wembley experience, with his first appearance at the stadium coming in November 2018 for England against the United States.

He followed this up with another appearance a few days later against Croatia, before making further eight appearances against Czechia, Montenegro, San Marino, Poland, Albania, Brazil and Belgium and Ukraine over multiple seasons.

Chilwell also played at Wembley against Spurs in February 2019 for Leicester City. He then featured for Chelsea in the 2020/21 FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City, where he kept a clean sheet in a 1-0 win, and then in the final where he lost to his former side Leicester.

Finally, of the current set of Palace first-team players, Adam Wharton may not have made a senior appearance under the arch as of yet, but he was there as an 11-year-old in a tournament he will always remember...

“Yeah, so this was in 2015 – 25th May, 2015 – before the Championship play-off final." Wharton explained to Sky Sports.

"We'd won a couple of tournaments before, and we were representing Blackburn – all the schools in Blackburn – and we were playing a team representing Bournemouth.

“We played box-to-box, width of the box, eight v eight before the 2015 play-off final – and we won on penalties! There were probably like… I mean, I've got no idea, but I'd say there were at least 10,000 fans maybe, just scattered about? So, yeah!

“And I managed to get a Patrick Bamford shirt after the game as well…” We wonder where that resides these days.

The remainder of the Palace crop in Maxence Lacroix, Chris Richards, Daniel Muñoz, Daichi Kamada, Romain Esse, Matheus França and Matt Turner amongst others have yet to feature at Wembley, but they may be in the squad or even on the pitch on Saturday.

This weekend's semi-final

Crystal Palace v Aston Villa
Saturday, 26th April
Wembley Stadium
17:15 BST
LIVE Audio commentary on Palace TV+

Supporters can experience Wembley, and Palace's biggest game of this season, from the best seats in the house through one of our Premium Experiences – including our Pitch View package, which comes with a number of incredible benefits.

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