MACCLESFIELD – The football players of the defending champion Crystal Palace were shockingly eliminated in the 3rd round of the English FA Cup.
On Saturday, they lost 1:2 on the field of Macclesfield, which only plays in the sixth top competition.
The two clubs are separated by up to 117 places in the English league “pyramid”, as Macclesfield operates in the regional National League North. According to AFP, this is the biggest difference an outsider has ever managed in FA Cup history against a higher-ranked opponent.
Captain Paul Dawson and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts scored in either half to secure a historic victory for the club, which has been forced into reform in 2020 following problems with unpaid debts. It wasn’t until the 90th minute that Yeremy Pino scored for the visitors, but he only mitigated the unexpected loss.
Crystal Palace are currently without a win in nine games in all competitions in the series. He beat Manchester City 1:0 in the final of the FA Cup last year.
Macclesfield Town is coached by John Rooney, Wayne Rooney’s brother.
“I can’t believe it, we never thought we’d be in this position,” Macclesfield coach John Rooney, younger brother of former England and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney, told the BBC. “We played unbelievable from the first minute. I think we deserved to win. I couldn’t be more proud of the boys. I didn’t think something like this was real, but there’s always that little bit of hope that anything can happen.”
Crystal Palace coach Oliver Glasner did not hide his disappointment: “I have no explanation for this. You don’t need tactics or a coach in games like this. You just have to show what you can do and have a bit of pride, then you have to give a completely different performance. But we lacked all of that today. We deserved to lose.”
Last year’s finalist Manchester City outclassed third-league Exeter 10:1, when Antoine Semenyo also scored after transferring from Bournemouth. Rico Lewis scored two goals. In the third-round match between two clubs from the Premier League, Sunderland enjoyed progressing over Everton after a penalty shoot-out, when the duel ended in a 1-1 draw even after extra time. Aston Villa beat Tottenham 2-1 on their turf and Newcastle knocked out Bournemouth in a shootout.
Norwegian Jörgen Strand Larsen contributed a hat-trick to Wolverhampton’s 6:1 victory over Shrewsbury in the fourth division. Next up is Stoke after a 1:0 win over Coventry, Slovak legionnaire Tomáš Rigo played 75 minutes in the winning team’s jersey. Burnley without Martin Dúbravka knocked out Millwall 5:1.
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