Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira knows his side are in for a ‘tough game’ when they visit Goodison Park to take on Everton on Thursday night.
Patrick Vieira said: “The last couple of games that they played at home the atmosphere was unbelievable. They are in a really difficult position, they need to win and we expect a tough game – a difficult one. But we will want to play of course as best as we can and the objective is always to try to win the game.”
The last time the two sides met resulted in a 4-0 win for Palace in the FA Cup quarter-finals, though the scoreline didn’t tell the full story over the course of 90 minutes. Everton started the brighter of the two sides and Vieira admitted that his team were second best in the opening 20 minutes before Marc Guehi’s opener turned the tide.
Patrick Vieira said: “It was a game that I learned a lot about the players because there’s always a question mark about how you manage the game when you are in a really difficult period and in that game I was really pleased because especially in the first 20 minutes we didn’t play well and I think they were really good. We remained calm and we managed that difficult period really well and then we went and scored that goal on the set-piece and after that, I think we managed the game really well and we started to play with more belief and confidence and we managed to go through. That was a really good game because of the way we managed it and that is something that we will have to keep in our mind for the game tomorrow.”
