Tremendous performances by the youngsters from Crystal Palace FC gave them a 2-1 win over Blue Star SC Kaluthara in their Dialog Champions League 2016 group stage game that was held at the Jayathilaka Stadium Nawalapitiya.
Crystal Palace were minus some of their more experienced players with a few missing out on this game as a result of accumulated yellow cards and red cards in the previous games.
The disadvantage did not seem to affect them much however as their youngsters really stepped up their game; 5 of the starting XI were U20 players along with one U16 player.
Isaac Aba and Anjana Wickramasinghe scored for Crystal Palace while Idowu Hameed scored for Blue Star.
At the beginning of the game Crystal Palace received a penalty as a result of a foul committed by Blue Star midfielder Mohamed Nageem on Isaac Aba inside the box; Isaac had no trouble converting the opportunity to put Crystal Palace up by 1.
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Crystal Palace’s center forward, 16 year old Mohomed Ifam produced some good through balls but forwards Isaac and Anjana couldn’t quite finish for them. The Crystal Palace defensive line did well, clearing the ball out without allowing the visitors chances to take shots on goal.
In the 40th minute Isaac missed a chance to send Palace clear by 2 when his shot was saved by a diving Blue Star Skipper Manjula Fernando.
Half Time – Crystal Palace 1 – 0 Blue Star
From the beginning of the 2nd half both teams tried to play attacking football.
In the 50th minute Mohomed Zaid got a long volley from mid-field but Manjula saved the day once again to keep Blue Star in the game.
Almost immediately after that Anjana scored the 2nd for Crystal Palace from outside the box, assisted by his former Kingswood College teammate Shamil Hilmy.
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From that point Crystal Palace played a defensive game, hoping to keep the visitors at bay.
Blue Star’s Afonja Jibola and Mohomed Fahir tried to score but they were unsuccessful. After some missed attempts Idowu Hameed drew one back for Blue Star in the 74th minute, but they were unable to find the elusive 2nd goal to draw level and the game ended in favour of Crystal Palace.
Full Time – Crystal Palace 2 – 1 Blue Star
ThePapare.com Player of the Match – Mohamed Rauzan (Crystal Palace)
Crystal Palace skipper Isaac Aba speaking to ThePapare.Com after the game said;
” It’s not an easy game , because we are hoping to go super 8 round so we have to try our best. As you can see we missing our 3 key players, so it’s not easy. That’s why we decided to use our young players and they did their best . Now we are readying for Sunday’s game.”
Goal Scorers
Crystal Palace – Issac Aba 3’, Anjana Wickramasinghe 53’
Blue Star – Idowu Hameed 74’
