Nketiah: It'll be amazing to share Wembley with our fans

First-team

1 Apr 2025

Eddie Nketiah says Crystal Palace’s supporters deserve their upcoming FA Cup semi-final trip to Wembley after the sheer scale of their support in the quarter-final win at Craven Cottage.

The No. 9 put the seal on the Eagles’ 3-0 win over Fulham at the weekend, coming on after 70 minutes, collecting fellow substitute Daichi Kamada’s outside-of-the-boot pass moments later, and sliding the ball between Bernd Leno’s legs before wheeling away to celebrate in front of the raucous away support.

That goal was Nketiah’s third in his last four appearances, and the forward – who has already won at Wembley with both Arsenal (in the 2019/20 Final) and England (on his debut against Australia in October 2023) is hoping to taste success again with Palace in the semi-final against Aston Villa later this month.

Nketiah beamed: “It’s amazing. I think it's nothing more than the boys deserve and the fans as well, you know – they literally brought Wembley to us with that atmosphere.

“I think it's going to be amazing to be able to get so many of them over to Wembley and have a chance to play for a title.

“I've been to Wembley and I know what it feels like to win there. It would be amazing to share that with this group of boys, and with the fans and the backroom staff.

“It's such a close-knit group. Everyone works hard for each other. Everyone believes in each other. It would be an amazing honour to share that.”

On his composed finish for Palace’s third goal, Nketiah reflected: “We did really well to go 2-0 up, but we needed that third goal to kind of seal it. It was a nice pass from Daichi and obviously a good finish, and a lovely moment to celebrate in front of the fans.

“I try not to think too much [in those situations] – I just try to get into good areas. I trust myself in front of a goal. I practise those situations a lot. It was a really nice pass and I felt confident when I was going through that I could get a goal.

“It was really loud and really exciting. It was a really nice moment to be able to share that with the fans and give us that little bit of room.”

As for the rest of the season, Nketiah says Palace will continue to strive to finish strongly in both their Premier League and Cup pursuits.

The 25-year-old said: “I think sometimes these things happen in God's timing. We've worked really hard. We have a lot of quality.

“[At the start of the season] we obviously had new players coming into the group, a new style, so we needed to adapt as well. I think we had games where the results didn't go our way, but we actually did play well at the beginning of the season.

“I think if you work as hard as this group does, and I see it every day with the staff, with the players, it's only a matter of time before it turns around. Football is a game of momentum. At the moment, we have that and we're pushing forward with that.

“At the start, I had the injury, but now I'm back, I'm fit. I'm raring to go. I'm getting more minutes. I'm coming on for longer. I feel confident.

“I know I can score goals. I've shown that. It's just about having that consistency and hopefully getting that consistency with the minutes to be able to keep contributing. I've just got to keep working hard, and hopefully the goals keep coming.”

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