Oliver Glasner lauded “amazing” Eberechi Eze after Crystal Palace cruised into the semi-finals of the FA Cup with a 3-0 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Eze was at the heart of Palace’s dominance in West London, with the England international scoring and assisting Ismaila Sarr prior to Eddie Nketiah’s strike in the second half.
His goal came after he got his first in international colours during England’s World Cup qualifier against Latvia earlier this week.
“I think Ebere has had a strange season, he hasn’t had many goals in the Premier League and he has been unlucky, but he keeps going, he’s also struggled with strange injuries,” Glasner said after the match.
“The goal against Latvia and his first for England means a lot for him him. He always has the confidence, we know he’s an amazing finisher to cut inside on his right foot with an amazing finish.
“We need this quality, he helped us today massively.”
Eze’s moment of brilliance came in the form of a magical solo dribble inside and strike into the far right corner.
The attacking midfield player then delivered a perfect cross into the path of the surging Sarr who nodded past Bernd Leno to double Palace’s advantage.
“We never lost our belief, we fought in the game,” Glasner added.
“Our first hello in the game was (Jefferson) Lerma hitting the post, the second was Eze who was important today with an amazing goal, our structure was better and defending was better, it was a great win today.”
Victory on Saturday marked Palace’s fifth successive win in all competitions as they now prepare for a first Wembley trip in three years.
“I think it’s something special that the two semi-finals are played in the same stadium as the final and this is something very English,” Glasner said. “I really like it and we will be ready in four weeks to win this game.”
Rodrigo Muniz almost broke the deadlock for Fulham in what was a promising first 20 minutes for the hosts.
However, the Cottagers struggled in the final third, only putting three of their 16 shots on target.
“It’s a big punch in our stomach,” boss Marco Silva said.
“We need to react, we can’t hide, we need to move forward in the last eight weeks of the season which are really important for us.
“No one expected what happened after (first 20 minutes), but the game is not 20 minutes long.
“We had two great chances in those 20 minutes from (Andreas) Pereira and Muniz, the reality is we didn’t score, we were not strong in both ends this afternoon.”
