Eberechi Eze was unstoppable as Crystal Palace eased to a 4-0 pre-season friendly win at Crawley Town tonight.
It looked as if the South Londoners were going to inflict a really heavy beating on their League Two hosts as they were 4-0 up inside the opening 24 minutes.
Crawley were unable to deal with the trickery and quality of Eze, who was replaced at the interval. By that point the England international had set up three goals and also curled home an excellent finish of his own.
It was Eze’s corner which was headed powerfully home by Mateta and then the same combination combined, the Palace number 10 dinking the ball over the top for the Frenchman to drive emphatically low and hard beyond Crawley keeper Corey Addai.
The Reds’ defence was overworked and struggling to stifle the Palace attack. When Eze collected the ball on the left of the penalty area it looked like trouble, and he effortlessly whipped the ball into the top right corner of the net.
Naouirou Ahamada added a fourth with Eze, predictably, the provider once again.
Palace’s second-half display saw them dominate possession and still create chances but without the clinical finish they had shown before the break.
Joel Ward’s cross deflected narrowly wide of the target while Odsonne Edouard was just unable on the stretch to turn in Jes Rak-Sakyi’s drive across the face of goal.
Crawley’s dogged persistence was not rewarded with anything tangible. Town sub Nick Tsaroulla was unlucky with a strike which came back off the right upright with keeper Remi Matthews only a spectator.
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