Glasner: The result was what’s most important - News

The end result of Tuesday night’s match against Millwall – progress in the Carabao Cup – was more important than Crystal Palace’s performance in the third-round, according to Manager Oliver Glasner.

The Eagles looked like they were set to earn a narrow win in a scrappy South London derby when Chris Richards forced home the ball from a set-piece, but conceded an equaliser as the clock ticked into stoppage time – before then missing a glorious chance to take the lead once more.

To penalty kicks the tie went, then, with the Eagles – who converted all four of their spot-kicks – ultimately emerging 4-2 winners against the Lions, thanks to a pair of saves by debutant Walter Benítez.

Glasner said in his post-match press conference: “It’s easy to sum up: bad performance, happy end, and I think that's it.

“We are unbeaten now – this season [it] is our eighth game. At the moment, it's more fighting than playing – so we fight for the points, for the wins, instead of playing for the points.

“But I know there will be moments and games, and the time will come when we will play better and it will be a better performance, and we will win.

“It's good to go to the next round, staying unbeaten. Unbeaten is important for us now.”

This was the message: we win as a team, we play as a team, we lose as a team
—Oliver Glasner

Glasner hailed his team’s unity when explaining his post-match message to his group of players.

The Manager noted: “To be honest, I'm always thinking ‘what’s the message?’ JP [Mateta] helped me today. I just quoted JP, because he said on the pitch, “Walter helped me”, and I said to him “you help us very often” – and this was the message: we win as a team, we play as a team, we lose as a team.

“Fortunately, we didn't lose, the whole season we didn't lose, for many weeks and months we didn't lose. Sometimes things don't come easily, we all know this.

“Sometimes you write an article and it flows, and sometimes you have to find every single word, and then you think: ‘ah, no, it's not good’. At the moment, we have to look for every single word, but then it's important when we press ‘Enter’, it's OK.

“There will be the moments. Now, it's important not to overload the players. We could show many things we can do better, but they know it, they are so self-critical, and now it's giving them a good feeling.

“Again, we're still unbeaten – a massive record for us, especially for this group of players, with all the difficulties they are dealing with.

“[Conceding] the equaliser in the 92nd minute… 94th minute, big chance, three players, including myself, were on the grass… and then ‘head up, take the penalties’. [They were] excellent, every single one, and we went into the next round. That's what we did today.

“Be patient with the programme, with the schedule we have, that not every single game will be a firework. Again, it's important not to lose – go into the next round. At the moment, it's more about the results than about the performances.”

First-team

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