Crystal Palace 3-0 Middlesbrough: Strand Larsen heads two as Palace reach round four

For the first half-hour, this Carabao Cup third-round tie did not look like a 3-0. Middlesbrough, the visitors, had more of the ball and more of the early running at Selhurst Park, and Crystal Palace were the side searching for a foothold. Then Jørgen Strand Larsen found one, and the evening turned.

Palace head coach Pierre Sage was candid about it afterwards: "We didn't play well at the beginning of the game and we started to play when we scored the first goal." It was an honest read of a match in which the hosts waited for a good delivery and then took control.

Goal by goal

1. 37' — Jørgen Strand Larsen, header, assisted by Óscar Mingueza (Crystal Palace) 1-0
2. 53' — Jørgen Strand Larsen, header, assisted by Ben Chilwell (Crystal Palace) 2-0
3. 72' — Daichi Kamada, assisted by Jørgen Strand Larsen (Crystal Palace) 3-0

The first came after a quick move down the left, Mingueza crossing and Strand Larsen heading home in the 37th minute. Eight minutes after the restart Ben Chilwell lofted a ball into the box and Strand Larsen leapt to head in his second. The third was a team goal in the purest sense: Strand Larsen supplied the pass on a counter-attack and the substitute Kamada, on for the closing stages, lifted the ball over Sol Brynn in the Middlesbrough goal.

Strand Larsen had a hand in all three. Two goals and an assist from a centre-forward leading the line alone in Palace's 5-4-1 shape is the kind of return a manager notes, particularly in a cup tie where the chance to rotate sits alongside the need to win.

Who played

The numbers

The table tells the story Sage described. Middlesbrough had nearly 60 per cent of the possession, six corners to one and completed 539 of their 600 passes. Palace had five shots on target to their four and scored three, a clinical return set against a visitor that did plenty right. Adilson Malanda (65') and Myles Peart-Harris (83') were the only players booked.

Hellberg: an impressive hour

Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg took a good deal from the defeat, saluting what he called an "impressive 60 minutes" from his team despite the scoreline. The numbers back him up for the period before Palace pulled away. Boro had come through the first round at home to Wrexham, 1-0 on 7 August, and their cup run ended here.

A cup debut and a breather from the league

Palace, as a Premier League side, entered the Carabao Cup at the third round, so this was their debut in this season's competition. It also arrived between two league games: a 3-2 win at Fulham on 5 September and a home game against Ipswich Town on 12 September, which Palace lost 2-3. The cup win gave Sage a clean-sheet evening after league defeats at Everton and at home to Manchester City.

What's next

Palace go into the fourth round, played 27-29 October, where the bracket sends them to Fulham, the side they beat 3-2 in the league just three days before this tie. Middlesbrough's Carabao Cup campaign is over.