Sports News of Sunday, 2 April 2017

Source: goal.com

Schlupp praises Crystal Palace resolve after victory at Chelsea

Jeffrey Schlupp Jeffrey Schlupp

Crystal Palace defender Jeffrey Schlupp has praised the hard fought win that his side earned against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

The Eagles earned an unlikely 2-1 victory with goals from Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha, three points that gave them higher hopes of escaping relegation.

It was an unlikely victory, for no team has been able to stop the juggernaut that Chelsea have become this season under manager Antonio Conte.

The Blues went into the game on the back of three straight victories, just like Crystal Palace who lost their last game against Stoke City in February.

Cesc Fabregas profited from a well-worked Eden Hazard play to score from inside the box as early as the fifth minute, leaving the visitors to ponder about what the remainder of the game would look like.

However, they did pick themselves up and the duo of Benteke and Zaha created the goals for each other all under 11 minutes as the Eagles closed up at the back to secure a sweet win.

“Another massive result! We had to dig deep but we got the 3 points in the end. Fans were great as usual,” Schlupp posted on Instagram after the game.



The Ghanaian has played seven times for manager Sam Alardyce since his 12 million pounds transfer in January from champions Leicester City.

In the game against Chelsea he made 49 passes and had the fifth best impact in the Palace side according to data from Whoscored.com.

Schlupp was left out of the Ghana squad to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon but would expect to make a return when the Black Stars start their campaign for Cameroon 2019 in June under a new manager.