Bristol City 4 Crystal Palace 1: Eagles exit EFL Cup in abject fashion

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Giuseppe Muro24 October 2017

Crystal Palace were dumped out of the EFL Cup by Bristol City as their nightmare season hit another low with a 4-1 defeat.

Palace were humiliated at Ashton Gate on a dreadful night for Roy Hodgson and his struggling side.

Hodgson made 10 changes with both eyes on Saturday’s crunch game against West Ham in the Premier League and Palace were humbled by their Championship opponents.

Bakery Sako had put Palace ahead early on but the Eagles were awful and goals from Matty Taylor, Milan Djuric, Joe Bryan and Callum O'Dowda gave Bristol City an easy win.

Premier League survival is the priority for Palace and Hodgson left Wilfried Zaha, Mamadou Sakho and Andros Townsend at home with the focus on that game.

(Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)
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But a side that Jason Puncheon, Wayne Hennessey, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Patrick van Aanholt collapsed far too easily.

Palace must now pick themselves up for a huge game against West Ham at Selhurst Park this weekend.

That match was always the focus for Hodgson this week but he will be alarmed by the limp display and shocking defending he saw from his second-string.

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They had gone ahead when Bakery Sako was played through by Loftus-Cheek and he slotted under Bristol City goalkeeper Luke Steele after 20 minutes.

But Palace gifted Bristol City an equaliser on 34 minutes when Van Aanholt had a nightmare in his own area and a header meant for Hennessey went straight into the path of Taylor who fired home from six yards.

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And Hodgson could only look on as Palace went behind six minutes before half-time.

Hordur Magnusson launched a long throw into the area and the ball eventually dropped for Djuric who thumped it into the back of the net.

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Palace were heading for defeat when Bryan put the home side 3-1 up with a stunning left-footed effort from outside the area on 60 minutes.

O'Dowda made it 4-1 on 66 minutes and Palace were beaten.