Liverpool's set-piece problem travels to the small pitch Iraola warned about
Fenerbahce beat Liverpool on Wednesday from a free-kick, a corner and a long throw, and Andoni Iraola says Selhurst Park's pitch sends every throw-in into the box. Palace have not scored in three league matches and play without Jean-Philippe Mateta, which leaves them looking for goals where Liverpool have just been giving them away.
Andoni Iraola listed the goals himself after Wednesday's 3-2 defeat in Istanbul: "We conceded from a free-kick, a corner, a long throw and that has hurt us." Liverpool had led twice at Fenerbahce, through Trey Nyoni and Alexander Isak, and lost to Muriqi's goal in the 79th minute, three days after Arsenal had won 1-0 at Anfield. On Friday, asked about Selhurst Park, he came back to the same thing: "it's a pitch that is not the biggest pitch, so you feel quickly under pressure", where one throw-in or one long ball goes straight into the box.
Liverpool should win it, narrowly, against a Palace side without a league goal in three matches and without Mateta.
Crystal Palace
- 1Walter Benítez
- 2Jaydee Canvot
- 3Cheick Doucouré
- 4Anan Khalaili
- 5Eddie Nketiah
- 6Will Hughes
- 7Darío Osorio
- 8Dwight McNeil
- 9Ben Chilwell
Liverpool
- 1Trey Nyoni
- 2Wataru Endo
- 3James McConnell
- 4Joe Gomez
- 5Víctor Muñoz
- 6Lewis Koumas
- 7Giorgi Mamardashvili
- 8Rio Ngumoha
- 9Kostas Tsimikas
Eddie Nketiah starts on the bench, and Daichi Kamada leads Palace's line with Jørgen Strand Larsen and Yéremy Pino behind him. Ryan Gravenberch is not in Liverpool's squad, so Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister hold the midfield behind Florian Wirtz.
Palace have no clearer way to a goal. They have lost their last three league matches without scoring, 5-0 at Brighton, 2-0 at home to Newcastle and 2-0 at Tottenham, and their 21 goals conceded are the most in the division. Mateta lasted 13 minutes at Tottenham before a VAR review turned his yellow card red, and the appeal against his three-match ban failed. Ismaïla Sarr, out with a groin injury, will not be back until after the international break. Eddie Nketiah is expected to lead the line, the man who scored the winner in the seventh minute of stoppage time when Palace last beat Liverpool at Selhurst, 2-1 in September 2025.
Iraola knows his side play two different seasons. "In the Champions League, we are scoring a lot and conceding a lot. In the Premier League, we are scoring less and conceding less," he said. They have let in nine in nine league matches against ten in four in Europe, and they have taken ten points from four league matches away from home.
There is a story in the dugouts too. Palace made Iraola, then at Bournemouth, a leading target to replace Oliver Glasner in the spring; he went to Liverpool in June to succeed Arne Slot, and Palace appointed Pierre Sage from Lens. Last season Palace beat Liverpool three times, in the Community Shield, at Selhurst and in the League Cup at Anfield, before losing 3-1 at Anfield in April.
A third defeat in a row would send Iraola's side into the international break beaten by the club that wanted him, from the kind of ball he spent Friday warning about.
Report · Liverpool win at Selhurst from a set piece, four days after losing to three →
