Crystal Palace thrashed Everton 4-0 to book a spot in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.
Marc Guehi, who was picked up to Gareth Southgate’s England team for the first time earlier this week, headed in Michael Olise’s corner for the game’s first goal (25), with Jean-Philippe Mateta converting a cut-back from Wilfried Zaha (41).
Palace, FA Cup runners-up in 2016, when they were narrowly defeated by Manchester United in extra-time, continued to dominate Everton in the second half, with Zaha (79) and replacement Will Hughes (87) both scoring close-range goals to expand their lead.
Relegation-threatened Everton came into the game fresh off a 1-0 Premier League win over Newcastle on Thursday, but their exertions appeared to take their toll in the south London heat, as they barely threatened after a promising start.
Palace, on the other hand, provided plenty of intrigue with Olise, Eberechi Eze, Zaha, and Conor Gallagher being picked in the same starting line-up for the first time, allowing home fans to dream of Wembley glory once more.
How Crystal Palace made it to the last four
Everton started brightly after their spectacular win against Newcastle, with Ben Godfrey almost slipping home a Michael Keane diagonal shot in the second minute and Richarlison causing Guehi issues early on.
However, an injury to former Palace midfielder Andros Townsend, who had to be assisted off the field after twisting his knee in the 13th minute, appeared to swing the game in Palace’s favor.
Guehi’s goal came after Olise’s initial corner almost caught Jordan Pickford off guard, forcing the Everton goalkeeper to punch the ball over the crossbar, and Palace almost extended their advantage when Zaha fired a Mateta cut-back into the side-netting.
Richarlison then missed a chance to equalise when he fired straight at Jack Butland from Seamus Coleman’s diagonal ball over the top, and Palace punished him soon after, with Mateta scoring after Eze had released Zaha on the left.
Mateta had an opportunity to make it three minutes before halftime when he latched onto a headed pass from Eze, who excelled in only his fourth appearance of the season, but Seamus Coleman made a fine recovery tackle before he could fire.
At halftime, Frank Lampard, who won the competition four times as a player to Palace boss Patrick Vieira‘s five, introduced Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but Everton were unable to cope with Palace’s lively onslaught.
The third goal came after Olise failed to connect properly with a shot, sending it rebounding towards Pickford’s far post, where Zaha was the first to react and slide the ball home.
At the other end, only Demarai Gray looked dangerous, blazing a low effort narrowly wide from outside the box once, but substitute Hughes caused even more frenzied celebrations from the home fans when he put the ball home after Gallagher’s low drive had been well saved.
