Patrick Vieira: Crystal Palace ‘fortunate’ to pick up point in Brentford draw

Patrick Vieira believed that his Crystal Palace side were fortunate to pick up a point from their 1-1 draw with Brentford.

The Eagles opened the scoring in the 59th minute through Wilfried Zaha. The Ivorian scored his fourth goal of the season in stunning fashion, squaring up to Aaron Hickey on the edge of the box and curling a right-footed shot around the Scottish defender and out of David Raya’s reach.

The Bees recused a point late on in the 88th minute when Vitaly Janelt sent a cross into the box for Yoane Wissa. The 25-year-old substitute was left unmarked inside the area and planted a header past Vicente Guaita.

Thomas Frank’s side could have claimed all three points in added time, but Ben Mee’s header from a Mikkel Damsgaard corner bounced off the post and away from danger.

The Eagles had 13 shots during the 90 minutes, while the west Londoners had nine.

“We didn’t create very much today – we didn’t play particularly well enough to score a lot of chances,” explained Vieira.

“The goal we conceded was bad defending from our side – we did not make the right decision. At this level, we can’t allow a player to be by himself inside the box without anybody next to him.

“This is something that we have to do better if we want to win football matches.

“We are lucky we didn’t concede that second goal at the end, because they had the best chances.

“When you’re looking at the game now and looking at the two chances they had, I think we are quite fortunate to get a point.”

Vieira switched to a back five with 10 minutes remaining, replacing attacking outlet Michael Olise with left-back Tyrick Mitchell. The Eagles were also missing an attacking midfielder, with Luka Milvojevic replacing Eberechi Eze in the 76th minute.

Brentford scored following the tactical change.

“It’s always good to look at the options when you’re winning 1-0,” explained Vieira of his substitutes and tactical changes.

“We looked at what they [Brentford] had been doing in the last couple of games and the changes that they make, and we needed to match that.

“One of the reasons for going to five at the back was to defend the crosses, but we didn’t do it.

“Of course, I’m not satisfied with the way we defended that cross [for Brentford’s first goal].”

PICTURE: PA