Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke: It has been a tough season
BY SAM SMITH
Christian Benteke marked his first start for Crystal Palace since February 9 with an impressive performance against Manchester City – and the striker points to hard work in training for his return to the Eagles line-up.
The Belgian has had a stop-start campaign due to injury and a loss of form, but produced some good hold-up play and was unlucky not to score in the 3-1 defeat to the title chasers.
Benteke said: “I am happy. It has been a tough season with injury but the main thing is for the players to control what they can control and I am always available for my team-mates and I work hard in training to be where I was today. I will keep pushing myself until the end.
“It has been a long time for me, I think the last game I started was ages ago so it is not easy or for the lads (getting used to playing with each other again) but there are no excuses, we have to deal with it.”
“We are all disappointed. When we got back into the dressing room we felt we could’ve maybe done a little more in the second-half and especially in the last 10 minutes.”
Photos by Keith Gillard