Crystal Palace’s season continued to go in the right direction after they beat Aston Villa 2-1 in the Carabao Cup.
Three days after kick-starting their Premier League campaign by beating Tottenham, Palace followed it up by booking their place in the quarter-finals of the League Cup thanks to Eberechi Eze and Daichi Kamada goals either side of Jhon Duran’s leveller.
Oliver Glasner’s men took advantage of an off-colour Villa side, who made wholesale changes, and are now two wins from a Wembley final.
The only sour point of the evening was seeing Eze and Adam Wharton limp off with first-half injuries.
Villa boss Unai Emery always said this competition was last on his list of priorities and his team selection proved it, with Ollie Watkins, Emiliano Martinez, Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers, Amadou Onana and Ross Barkley not even in the matchday squad.
That left them with no firepower to rescue the game after they fell behind to Kamada’s goal and they limped out, with bigger challenges – a weekend trip to Tottenham and a Champions League visit to Club Brugge – to come.
Despite their raft of changes, which included Tyrone Mings starting for the first time in 445 days following a serious knee injury, Villa could have taken the lead inside the opening five minutes, but Leon Bailey twice squandered good opportunities.
First he shot straight at Palace goalkeeper Matt Turner after making space for himself at the far post and then scuffed another effort from 12 yards when he had time and space from Ian Maatsen’s cutback.
But it was Palace who went ahead with their first attack of the match in the eighth minute.
Daniel Munoz made his way down the right, sent in an inviting cross and Eze planted a header into the bottom corner.
Eze soon limped off for Palace, who were pegged back in the 23rd minute.
Boubacar Kamara, also making his first start since February, did brilliantly to win the ball back and then set Bailey free, with the Jamaican picking out Duran to fire home.
Villa looked the more likely to force a second and Emiliano Buendia had a close-range effort saved before Jaden Philogene’s shot was well blocked by Trevoh Chalobah.
Duran forced Turner into a flying save in the early stages of the second half as he shot from distance and then he poked wide when a loose ball fell to him.
But Villa shot themselves in the foot by gifting Palace the lead in the 64th minute.
Passing out from the back, Diego Carlos misplaced a pass, allowing Kamada to find the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Villa had no serious attacking resources to call on from the bench and Palace were able to cruise through.