Crystal Palace were victorious in the first game back after the three week international break, beating Nottingham Forest 3-1 despite a poor first half and going down 1-0 just three minutes into the game. 

Pierre Sage’s side dug in to survive a flurry of Forest chances before finding an equaliser through Daichi Kamada, which was briefly followed by a Jefferson Lerma header to put Palace a goal to the good at the break. 

The second half showed much improvement, and Palace found a third goal via Yéremy Pino, who drilled home a saved Jørgen Strand Larsen strike to secure all three points for Palace. 

It was only the side’s first home win in the league this season, an area of form which both players and the manager have expressed a keen interest in improving. 

Palace’s frontman Strand Larsen spoke to the club’s media team after the game and gave some context to how the international break impacted him and his teammates, and the importance of a win to start a tough run of games. 

It was a hard fought win, and there was a sense that the side really clubbed together and worked relentlessly to win the game, something Strand Larsen was keen to encourage and highlight. 

“[It was] really intense, a lot of heart, a lot of enjoyment also to be fair. I feel like these are the games we want to play at home, a lot of passion and today I felt really good, I think we all did. We got off to a sloppy start, but it was really good to bounce back.”

Palace conceded six big chances in the first half, facing a mammoth 16 shots on goal, with Walter Benítez making two strong saves. 

At 1-0 down, Benítez sprawled off the floor to block a Liam Delap volley from a matter of yards out, keeping the deficit at just one goal and ultimately platforming Palace to go on and win the game. 

Strand Larsen was full of praise for his teammate, who has deputised superbly in the absence of Dean Henderson who continues to struggle with injury. 

“Walter is a top goalkeeper, we’ve got so many top players around here now so everyone did really well today, but moments like that [the save] are important.”

Despite the difficulty of that first half, Palace remained patient and found a leveller through an excellent team move, which combined Daichi Kamada, Quinten Timber, Adam Wharton and Strand Larsen, the Japanese international finding the decisive finish at the end of the move. 

The flow of the game suggested that the prospect of Palace going into halftime level, let alone in front, was a huge longshot. 

“We scored just before halftime which is also great and I feel like it was a ding dong game, but at the end the mentality we had is why we won it, we always stayed positive, even at 1-0 down in the beginning we were positive and we knew at halftime the game wasn’t over so we came out and did the same thing, scored again, and yeah, it’s a massive three points.” 

Not only was the win important to resume the domestic season and get some vital points onto the Premier League table, but it was also the perfect way to start a period of games which is going to be extremely demanding for the squad. 

“I think it’s three on the road now, three really cool matches so I wish we could celebrate a bit more today, but it’s all about recovery now and getting back on the feet again. [We’ve got a] tough October coming up, but football games are what we live for.”

Whilst the international break was tipped as a potential spell for Sage to get some time with his squad on the training pitch, the reality is that the majority of Palace’s first team players were away on international duty, including Strand Larsen with Norway. 

However, he did hint that the time away from domestic football has improved the overall atmosphere at the club, even if the players that were away were not around to enjoy that.

“Most of us have been at the international break but the guys that stayed here have got better relationships within the staff and the players, and obviously the manager as well.”

“The mentality has to be there and today it was top, it was an outstanding performance in many ways, obviously we can still do better because we don’t want to give them too much but obviously it’s a quality team we’re playing against, also we know Oliver [Glasner] and he’s a great manager, he knew how to hurt us so that’s a problem but at the same time I feel like we did well.”

Glasner certainly targeted the weak link in the defence, with Lerma’s lack of pace exploited by Dan Ndoye, which was one of the learning points from the game. 

Winning at Selhurst Park has been a difficult task in recent years, with Palace’s home form struggling for consistency. Winning the first home Premier League game of the season was an evident priority for the players.

“I feel like it was good to get a win here [Selhurst] because we haven’t done that too much last season and also we didn’t do that against Ipswich or City so it’s a great feeling.”

Strand Larsen will be hoping to continue leading the line as the season progresses, despite Jean-Philippe Mateta being close to a return.