Patrick Vieira bemoaned his side not making the right decisions when beating Brentford on Saturday. Crystal Palace thought they had secured their first win of 2023 when Eberechi Eze found the back of the net with 20 minutes to go. However, the home side scored with one of the last kicks of the game to pull level. Vitaly Janelt’s 96th-minute goal meant Vieira’s side continued their search for three points this year, with the gap to 18th place now only six points. Speaking after the final whistle,
Patrick Vieira said: “I think we defended well until then. We managed to score that first goal and of course we expect to take the three points. But that situation, when we had the ball we didn’t make the right decision and then we open our self a little bit.We give them too much time to cross the ball, put the ball inside the box and all the balls inside the box we defend it well by winning the first contact, winning the second contact but that moment was hard for us and I’m disappointed of course.”
Vieira was forced into a defensive substitution when Tyrick Mitchell was forced off with an injury late on and was replaced by Chris Richards. Though the former Arsenal midfielder said the change did not result in the late goal and felt overall his side defended well up until the equaliser.
Patrick Vieira said: “I think it’s just about defending and it was a situation where we needed to accept to defend all the long balls and we did it quite really well. That last cross was something that we couldn’t manage. I think they were in a situation three against two on that side of the field and they competed and they won the duels and they scored a goal. But overall that was the only mistake that we made and that mistake cost us the three points.”
