Fulham fold on their hyped-up day as Oliver's Army grab themselves a Wembley semi-final date
FA Cup Quarter-Final
Fulham (0) 0
Crystal Palace (2) 3 Eze 34, Sarr 38, Nketiah 75
The black and white flags and raucous pre-match noise - with a PA hype of historic proportions to match - suggested the Whites had one foot on Wembley Way before a ball was kicked.
How misleading it was. How deflating for Fulham fans arriving at a sun-kissed Cottage full of expectation for this lunchtime clash between the last two London clubs still in the cup.
Palace set up with a more defensive formation to absorb the expected early onslaught - then hit Fulham with two sucker punches before the interval to all-but crush Whites hopes of a getting to a rare semi-final in this venerable competition.
It looked for all the world as if the early intensity and tempo must be rewarded with a goal for the hosts. Rodrigo Muniz wriggled past two defenders before clipping a shot narrowly wide and Andreas Pereira almost finished off a fine piece of link-up play down the left between Willian and Calvin Bassey. The corner count mounted.
But nothing doing.
Instead, it was the Eagles who found their touch in front of goal. Eberechi Eze took delivery of a short pass from Tyrick Mitchell before cutting inside and curling a superb shot around Bernd Leno from outside the area. Sasa Lukic paid the price here for allowing Eze to come back onto his right foot rather than force him to go outside him.
A goal out of nothing.
Yet moments of extra class are always capable of settling games like this and when Eze had the ball at his feet again four minutes later, he was allowed to drift down the left and cross unimpeded for Ismaila Sarr to nod in at the near post.
After that, Oliver Glasner's men did what they do best - sitting back with that compact and organised set up of theirs to home in on a repeat of a recent 2-0 win at the Cottage in the league.
Adama Traore and Emile Smith Rowe came on to try and find a way through. Raul Jimenez came on as time started to ebb away. It made no difference. Without the injured Harry Wilson and with Tom Cairney not involved until it was too late, the Whites created next to nothing.
A masked Jean-Philippe Mateta made way for Eddie Nketiah and when fellow sub Daichi Kamada found him in space in the left channel, the former Arsenal man drilled the ball through the legs of Leno.
Game, set and match.
Palace will now have the chance to go one better than last time they made the semis - when they succumbed to Chelsea. A first ever FA Cup triumph is very much within their compass.
For Fulham, it will have to be filed away as another quarter-final let down and there have been way too many of those.
The last time the Eaglesplayed Fulham in the cup was way back in 1907 when they beat the Whites in a replay. They did not go on to reach the final that year, though they did host it.
Maybe this time, it will be a springboard to going all the way to a first ever triumph. In this, maybe the most open FA Cup since the bizarre 2008 edition when Portsmouth played Cardiff in the final, they can dare to dream.
Whites: (4-2-3-1) Leno - Castagne, Andersen, Bassey, Robinson (Sessegnon 71) - Berge, Lukic (Traore 63) - Pereira (Smith Rowe 64), Iwobi (cairney 83), Willian (Jimenez 70) - Muniz
Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Richards, Lacroix, Guehi - Munoz (Clyne 87), Wharton (Kamada 70), Lerma, Mitchell - Sarr (Devenny 87), Eze (Franca 90) - Mateta (Nketiah 70)
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