Super Olise pulls the strings as soaring Palace surpass Wolves
Park, gave the in-form Eagles the lead in the 26th minute with a delightful curling strike, and was then key in the buildup to of their second two minutes later, scored by Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Wolves, having hit the bar via a Matt Doherty header, pulled a goal back midway through the second half when Matheus Cunha fired in. Olise’s pass then set up Eberechi Eze in the 73rd minute to wrap things up for Palace, who were reduced to 10 men by Naouirou Ahamada’s sending-off with five minutes of normal time to go.
The latest fine result in Palace’s strong conclusion to the season under Oliver Glasner means they leapfrog Gary O’Neil’s Wolves into 12th place, with one game left to play. Olise now has 10 league goals for the season and Mateta 13 – 10 of
which have come in the 12 games Palace have had so far with Glasner in charge.
Glasner unsurprisingly named the same starting XI as he had on Monday, but an early change followed when Will Hughes was injured in a collision with Cunha and was replaced by Ahamada.
Before that, the Wolves captain, Max Kilman, had headed over from a corner, and shortly after, a good chance fell to the visitors when Mario Lemina lost possession near his own box, the ball came to Mateta and he scuffed wide.
Olise subsequently failed to make the most of a decent opportunity, drilling wide – then gave another demonstration of his class as he curled a shot from just outside the area past Dan Bentley, a late replacement in the Wolves lineup for the ill José Sá, to put Palace in front.
Within moments, further magic from Olise had helped the visitors double their advantage, the 22-year-old cutting into the penalty area from the right and playing a delicate chipped pass to tee up Nathaniel Clyne. The defender cracked a shot against a post but Mateta was on hand to finish from close range on the follow-up.
Chris Richards nodded over as Palace sought another, and Wolves then went close to reducing the deficit just before the break when Doherty’s header hit the bar, with Dean Henderson, the Palace goalkeeper, possibly getting a touch.
Having seen a drive saved by
Henderson early in the second half, Cunha then had the ball in the net in the 66th minute, firing in from Hwang Hee-chan’s cutback. Initially the effort was disallowed with the flag having gone up for offside, but the video assistant referee intervened and after a check the goal was given.
Wolves were back in the game but Palace soon restored a two-goal lead, with Olise inevitably involved,
playing a through ball that Eze took around Bentley and slotted in.
After a brief confrontation between Glasner and Nélson Semedo as the Wolves defender tried to get the ball, which led to the visitors’ manager being booked, Bentley did well to deny Daniel Muñoz, before Henderson thwarted Pablo Sarabia and Lemina.
Ahamada was then penalised for a foul on Cunha, with a spot-kick being awarded and a second yellow card leading to a red. The penalty turned into a free-kick after a VAR check as replays showed the challenge happened outside the box, and Wolves were unable to make the man advantage count in the closing stages.