Report & Highlights: Mateta chips Palace to victory at Portman Road

Summary:

• One change for Palace as Doucouré replaces Lerma.
• 8: Guéhi beats O’Shea to a threatening corner delivery.
• 23: O’Shea improvises to head behind whipped Eze free-kick.
• 29: Doucouré’s fierce half-volley deflects off Greaves and behind.
• 32: Chalobah heads over Doucouré’s dipping cross.
• 36: Mitchell finds Muñoz, who slips as he strikes.
• 45: Henderson kicks clear Clarke’s header from close range.
• HT: Ipswich 0-0 Palace
• 48: Delap heads straight at Henderson and Eze’s shot deflects wide.
• 59 – GOAL: Mateta dribbles past Greaves and chips Palace into the lead.
• 67: Muric’s outstretched glove denies Mateta a second.
• 80: Morsy shoots wide from distance for Ipswich.
• 86: Greaves’ header hits the post for Ipswich.
• FT: Ipswich 0-1 Palace

The Frenchman showed brilliant control and improvisation to race onto Ebere Eze’s pass midway through the second-half, beat defender Jacob Greaves with a stepover and impudently loft the ball past Arijanet Muric.

The goal capped a battling display in which Palace were in control of possession for long stretches of the game, with the closest Ipswich coming being a Greaves header which came back off the upright in the closing stages.

Little over three days after Daniel Muñoz’s dramatic first goal for the club earned Palace a 1-1 draw against Newcastle United, Oliver Glasner made one change for his side’s trip to newly-promoted Ipswich, with Cheick Doucouré coming into the starting XI for Jefferson Lerma.

With both teams entering the contest with identical win/draw/loss records, and Ipswich without a home win so far this season – and Palace winless away – both teams had plenty to set right on a chilly winter’s night at Portman Road.

In truth, an intense start – with both sides’ pressing statistics highlighted in the build-up to kick-off – yielded few clear-cut chances, although Palace skipper Marc Guéhi did well in the opening minutes to deny Dara O’Shea a clean near-post header after the Ipswich man had escaped his marker at an early corner.

Palace enjoyed the better of the territory inside the opening quarter of the game, and controlled possession, but chances were slow in arriving; on 23 minutes, O’Shea was forced to make a fine clearance in front of his own goalmouth following Eze’s wickedly whipped free-kick.

It was just before the half-hour mark that either side’s first real shooting opportunity arrived: after Eze was held up on the edge of the box, his attempted flicked pass was headed into the ‘D’ by Mateta, and Doucouré showed great technique to strike a firm half-volley which hit Jacob Greaves and skewed wide.

From the resulting corner, the hosts could only half-clear, and Doucouré’s invitingly looped cross was attacked by former Ipswich defender Trevoh Chalobah – under pressure and on the stretch, he headed over.

For the second game running, Palace finished the first-half strongly – a well-worked move saw Tyrick Mitchell’s pull-back across the box find Muñoz at the far, but – angling his run backwards to meet the ball – the Colombian slipped at the crucial moment.

The attacks were beginning to rack up – and after Ismaïla Sarr and Mateta combined well with some accurate low passing, only a fine last-ditch sliding challenge from Ipswich defender Wes Burns stopped Eze from slotting the Eagles into the lead.

It wasn’t until the stroke of half-time that Palace’s goalmouth was threatened, but when it was, Dean Henderson rose to the challenge, reacting sharply to deny Harry Clarke’s near-post header with his legs at close range.

Where the first-half took time for goalmouth action to arrive, the second opened brightly as Liam Delap headed a promising cross straight at Henderson and – immediately up the other end – Eze’s crisp low effort took a deflection which, unfortunately for Palace, diverted it wide.

It was going to take a moment of magic to break the deadlock – and just before the hour mark, Mateta was the man to provide it.

A quick fall forwards from Lerma – on at half-time for Doucouré – saw the Colombian square for Eze, whose ball inside found Mateta charging towards the box.

The forward still had Greaves to beat, but did so superbly with a wonderful step-over, gracefully chipping Muric in the hosts’ net for his fourth league goal of the season.

Ipswich responded with a triple substitution but it was Mateta who provided the menace as he ran in behind again to meet Eze’s clipped pass. Only an outstretched glove from Muric denied Palace a second.

Both managers shuffled their packs soon thereafter and the game, albeit lacking nothing in passion, continued to ebb and flow in terms of chances.

Ipswich did pose a couple of problems as the game entered its final stages: Omari Hutchinson forced Henderson into a crucial punch, and Sam Morsy fired a swerving effort wide of the mark from 30 yards.

And in a season where Palace have seemingly had precious little luck so far, they deserved their slice of it on 86 minutes when Greaves’ header back across goal – from Conor Chaplin’s clever set-piece – hit the base of the post, bounced back off Nathan Broadhead and went behind.

Not always pretty, but frequently in control, Palace saw out three minutes of added time to end their troubles on the road and move up to 16th in the Premier League table.

Ipswich: Muric (GK), H. Clarke, O'Shea, Graves, Davis, Morsy, Cajuste (Taylor, 65), Burns (Broadhead, 65), Hutchinson, J. Clarke (Chaplin, 65), Delap (Al-Hamadi, 80).

Subs: Walton (GK), Johnson, Townsend, Phillips, Szmodics.

Palace: Henderson (GK), Muñoz, Chalobah (Richards, 81), Lacroix, Guéhi, Mitchell, Doucouré (Lerma, 45), Hughes, Sarr (Nketiah, 90), Mateta, Eze (Devenny, 76).

Subs: Turner (GK), Ward, Clyne, Kporha, Schlupp.

As It Happened