Wilf Zaha wants to retain spot-kick duties for Palace – and critical of team’s first-half display against Valladolid

Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha told his team-mates that their first-half performance against Real Valladolid was not good enough.

The Ivorian scored a second-half brace last night to cancel out Sergio Leon’s first-half opener.

The win over the La Liga side at Selhurst Park was Palace’s first win of their winter pre-season schedule, having drawn with Botafogo and Trabzonspor and losing to Napoli.

Patrick Vieira’s side resumes their Premier League campaign in nine days against Fulham.

“I wasn’t happy with the first half,” Zaha told PalaceTV. “I definitely made it known when we went inside. But I’m glad that we went back out there, changed things up a little bit, and pressed them properly. I’m happy to end with a win – we deserved it.

“It’s weird. Considering the talent and the dribblers that we have, just in the final half, we just need to be more clinical.

“It’s things that the gaffer has worked on throughout the time that we had in Turkey.

“Getting the win today is definitely going to give us confidence going into our first game back.”

Zaha missed his penalty in the 1-0 defeat away to Nottingham Forest before the Premier League was put on pause for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

He also missed his spot kick in the 1-1 friendly draw with Brazilian side Botafogo.

But Zaha made no mistake against Valladolid on Friday evening, slotting his 75th-minute penalty past Jordi Masip to give the Eagles the lead.

“That’s not me,” said Zaha when asked whether it could have been easy for him to give the penalty duties to another player after missing a handful in a row. “I couldn’t do that. I would think: ‘What type of chicken am I?’

“I’ll miss, but at the end of the day, I’m man enough to stand up again and take it again.

“I just have to make sure I score. The gaffer has got a decision – either he keeps me on, or he doesn’t. I think he should after I scored today.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD