Oliver Glasner says it was very important for his Crystal Palace side to book their place in the third round of the EFL Cup following a 4-0 win over Championship side Norwich at Selhurst Park on Tuesday evening.
The Eagles got off to a perfect start when Jean-Philippe Mateta played through Daichi Kamada in the second minute and the Japanese international rounded Goerge Long to open his account for the season.
Eberechi Eze had two goals ruled out during the first half for being offside but Palace put themselves two goals ahead at the start of the second half with a sublime overhead kick from Jean-Philippe Mateta from inside the Norwich penalty area.
The French striker booked Palace’s place in the next round in the 68th minute when he finished off Eberechi Eze’s cutback inside the area.
Eze finally got his well-deserved goal in the 84th minute when he danced his way through the Norwich defence and slotted past Long.
The third round draw will take place on Wednesday evening.
“It was a very important win today,” said Glasner.
“We scored very nice goals and started pretty well. We needed two big saves from Dean Henderson, but overall, we controlled the game and scored two nice goals.
“We could see that we’re not there or at the level we would like to be. We have an explanation – we have too many players not in their best physical shape.
“You can’t be after two and a half weeks of training.
“We gave Eze and Mateta 90 minutes as it’s the best physical training they could have.
“It was a very good win today.”
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