Oliver Glasner makes Fulham admission as Crystal Palace make ‘many mistakes’ to fall to defeat

Oliver Glasner said it was the first time his Crystal Palace side deserved to lose as they fell to a 2-0 defeat to Fulham on Saturday.

The Eagles went behind before half–time when Maxence Lacroix gave the ball away and Raul Jiminez played through Emile Smith Rowe, with the former Eagles transfer target finishing past Dean Henderson to open the scoring.

Substitute Harry Wilson wrapped up three points in the 83rd minute for the west Londoners when he latched onto a through ball from Alex Iwobi to score.

Marco Silva’s side dominated the game, with Smith Rowe and Wilson both having goals ruled out through VAR.

“Today it is easy to sum up the game – Fulham were the better team,” said Glasner.

“They were very aggressive and were very direct.

“There is a lot of pace in their attack. We made too many easy mistakes. We had some situations to come back into the game and we didn’t take them.

“The red card was from a mistake we made. We had the ball and lost it with inaccurate passing. We made a tackle in their half, which saw a red card.

“Being 1-0 down and playing against a very good Fulham side, it was the first game this season where we deserved to lose the game.”

The Eagles were without key players Eberechi Eze, Eddie Nketiah, Adam Wharton and Jefferson Lerma through injury. 

Glasner said: “Fulham were better. We have to accept it. I don’t look for any excuse because we were missing players. 

“The team that played today could have done better in many situations. We didn’t have the determination in possession. We were too slow – we were always looking, and looking, and looking.

“We were punished right before half-time. If you make so many mistakes, it means you lose more and more confidence.

“We started the second half quite well, but the game was over after the red card.”

PICTURES: KEITH GILLARD