Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson said Christian Benteke was not supposed to have taken the stoppage-time penalty he squandered in his side’s 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Saturday.
Luka Milivojevic had netted a penalty earlier in the game, but when Charlie Daniels was deemed to have fouled Wilfried Zaha in injury time at Selhurst Park, Benteke snatched the ball.
The Belgium striker’s tame spot-kick was saved by Bournemouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic to leave Palace at the foot of the Premier League table.
Hodgson became involved in a heated discussion with a fan at the final whistle and he told the BBC: “The guy was only asking a question. He was asking why Benteke had been told to take the penalty.
“I was telling him he hadn’t. Benteke got hold of the ball. It was a unilateral decision. No-one on our team was able to wrest the ball from him.
“We, the management, don’t expect players to change those decisions. We tried to shout out our instructions. They obviously didn’t reach the penalty spot.”
After Jermain Defoe put Bournemouth ahead, Palace came from behind to lead through Milivojevic’s penalty and a close-range effort by substitute Scott Dann, who came on for the injured Mamadou Sakho.
But Defoe earned the visitors a point with a magnificent, dipping shot from the right-hand side of the penalty area in first-half injury time.
Palace are now unbeaten in five games and Hodgson tried to put their disappointment into context.
“The fact is, even if we had come out of the bottom three, we’re still very much anchored near the foot of the table,” said the former England manager, who succeeded Frank de Boer at Palace in September.
“We missed an opportunity today. I believe we did enough to get the three points. If you miss penalties at home, you’ve only got yourself to blame.”
AFP