Odsonne Edouard brace helps Crystal Palace edge out Wolves

Posted Sunday, September 03, 2023 by PA

Crystal Palace earned their second victory of the Premier League season with a 3-2 win over Wolves at Selhurst Park.

Two goals from Odsonne Edouard and Eberechi Eze’s sublime finish saw off a stubborn Wolves side who had equalised through substitute Hwang Hee-Chan and saw Matheus Cunha net a late consolation.

In a match-up between two sides who had scored just four goals between them coming into the game, the first half was unsurprisingly a somewhat dour affair lit up in flashes by the enterprising Eze.

The England international thought he should have had a penalty early in the first half when he went down under a Joao Gomes challenge but VAR official Stuart Attwell deemed the contact was insufficient to award a spot-kick.

Almost immediately the visitors should have found themselves a goal down when Jose Sa’s poor pass was nicked off the toes of Craig Dawson by Jefferson Lerma who teed up Jordan Ayew, but Wolves skipper Max Kliman blocked his shot on the line.

A Pedro Neto effort that was tipped over by Palace goalkeeper Sam Johnstone just before half-time was the only shot of note from Gary O’Neil’s side before the break, but the game exploded into life after the restart with all five goals coming in the second half.

A superb run and cross from Tyrick Mitchell down the left wing picked out Edouard who snuck between two defenders to steer the ball past Sa and give Palace a 56th-minute lead.

But Wolves hit back in the 65th minute when Hee-Chan made an immediate impact shortly after his introduction from the bench when he made contact with Neto’s superb free-kick with his shoulder with the ball looping over Johnstone.

But Palace always looked the more likely to score with Eze becoming all the more influential and it was the former QPR man who made it 2-1 in the 77th minute with a superb touch and finish after Jean-Philippe Mateta diverted Joel Ward’s pass into his path.

Six minutes later Edouard wrapped up the win after Mateta’s back-heel fooled the Wolves defence with the former Celtic striker burying the ball past the helpless Sa.

Eze almost added a fourth for Palace with another jinking run into the box but Sa saved well to his left and palmed the ball wide of the post.

Wolves pulled a goal back in the sixth minute of time added on when Neto’s cross was met in the box by the head of Cunha but Palace held on for the win.