For a man whose touchline has resembled a tightrope recently, Pierre Sage looked remarkably calm as his side absorbed relentless waves of Fulham attacks.
Make no mistake about it, Crystal Palace were bad for long stretches here. Not particularly gritty or rugged, more downright lucky. Eddie Nketiah’s goal came from their only shot of the first half, one of three they had all night.
All the same warts that have plagued them throughout the season persisted, especially in the first half: sloppiness in possession, a lack of common sense, defending set-pieces with all the physicality of breadsticks.
It does not bode well for Tottenham on Saturday, when the trapdoor could betray Sage if things go awry.
And yet it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that they emerged victorious to reach the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, with the travelling fans singing Sage’s name. A man who won the Coupe de France with Lens last season has them dreaming.
His heavily rotated Palace side, who are on course to concede 90 goals in the Premier League this season, kept a clean sheet on Dean Henderson’s inspired return from injury. Their first XI should now be fresh for Halloween in north London.
Eddie Nketiah scored an acrobatic delicate goal to put Palace ahead in the first half
Pierre Sage remains under pressure but this victory helps – he looked calm throughout
‘You think it’s a good defensive performance because we kept a clean sheet. But we struggled a lot in the first half, especially on the left side,’ Sage admitted.
‘We have to be honest with ourselves – we have to stabilise these things.’
Quite how they survived was beyond comprehension. At one point Oscar Mingueza beat two men in his own box, only to play a precise pass to Oscar Bobb on the edge of the area, so comically wasteful you’d think it was a practical joke on his team-mates.
Set-pieces remained a thorn in their side. Twice in the first half they were lucky that Kenny Tete and Joachim Andersen headed wide from corners, having been allowed to roam free in the box.
The Eagles could not get out of their own half and Fulham just seemed to want it more – Bobb managed to wrestle Evann Guessand, five inches his superior, off the ball to stymie a counter-attack. Fulham were suffocating their visitors.
But life works in odd ways and, after 37 minutes of being strangled, Palace scored with their first touch in Fulham’s box – an acrobatic and delicate finish from Nketiah via a Mingueza cross.
‘We need to learn that we will face many teams in this league who are waiting for a mistake,’ said a deflated Alvaro Arbeloa. ‘It’s the same story.’
Palace turned on the tenacity in the second half. Honest Ahanor intervened heroically to deny Rodrigo Muniz an easy finish from a cross, earning an embrace from Dean Henderson.
And Henderson pulled off a superb save to deny Alex Iwobi from point-blank range, with Craven Cottage’s crowd erupting in cheers, thinking the ball had gone in.
Fulham were simply not clinical enough. Muniz, handed the ball by Ahanor, fired a limp shot straight at the goalkeeper. Josh King was brought on to much excitement but could not crack the nut. Henderson denied a powerful Gonzalo Garcia header.
Palace dug in, defended for their lives, and as the whistle blew, Alvaro Arbeloa looked far more stressed than his counterpart.
As for Sage, looking all suave in his long black coat, he sauntered over to the away end and blew kisses to his wife.
