BY ANDREW MCSTEEN
After winning the first-ever major trophy in club history by defeating Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday, Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner is asking for one last push from his players as the Premier League season comes to an end this week.
The Eagles entertain Wolverhampton Wanderers at Selhurst Park tomorrow night in what is sure to be a carnival atmosphere, while Sunday afternoon sees the side travel to Merseyside for their final game, against champions Liverpool.
But the players do not get to go on holiday just yet, with the following Monday set to see the FA Cup win celebrated in South London with a party, with details still to be confirmed at the time of writing.
A point in either remaining game would ensure that the Eagles get to 50 points, the most-ever in the Premier League era.
Glasner ,asked about if his players could find more motivation after their heroics at the weekend, said: “We are wondering how the players can deal with the situation.
“They’ve done excellently with this so far and now, with this biggest achievement (FA Cup win), a lot of tension just drops. They’re all human beings with all these emotions so sometimes it’s not so easy you can turnaround within two days.
“We have to find the right commitment altogether, how we want to enter this week, and especially how we want to end this week with two games to play. We’ll talk about it. Then let’s see how good we can deal with this.
“We will try to find the right motivation. A few weeks ago, everybody was talking about the FA Cup semi-final, about the FA Cup final, and then I said to the players: ‘Okay, if we achieve a new points record then you get two more days off’.
“They wanted it now after winning the FA Cup and I said ‘no, one point is two days’, so there’s still this motivation. Let’s see, maybe this helps a little bit. It helped definitely in the last weeks, because we had very good performances always.
“This season Barcelona won the title and they lost at the weekend. Monaco qualified for the Champions League and they lost 4-0 in the last game. It’s just because they’re all human beings, then it’s not so easy, and you always have to perform be mentally 100 per cent. Being this every single day after such an achievement is not too easy, but we will try for it that we can get it done and win again.”
Glasner revealed that the club had made a request for the Wolves game to be put back 48 hours to allow for recovery from the FA Cup but it was not granted.
Despite this, he is looking forward to a party in SE25 under the floodlights.
“I was really fighting for getting the Wolves game to be played on Thursday and not on Tuesday but sometimes you can shout against the wind and nobody hears it, and this happened in this case. We have to play this game tomorrow,” he said.
“It’s our last home game and we will have a great atmosphere at Selhurst. Many fans are still celebrating. It’s what they deserve – a great end of the season at home. This is what we will go for.
“I don’t know at the moment how it will be tomorrow but I’m pretty sure fans will show it again, like every single home game and now at Wembley. It will be a great last home game of the season.
“We will try to keep everybody motivated, to keep ensuring the best possible performance. I experienced it as a player, as a manager – sometimes it did not work how we wanted it to work.”
PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD
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