The Eagles conceded early in their first game back from the international break and could have fallen further behind after Forest dominated stretches of the first-half – but Benítez’s remarkable saves prevented them from doing so.
In the end, remarkably, Palace turned things around inside the first-half through Daichi Kamada and Jefferson Lerma – and then finished off the contest early in the second period through Yéremy Pino – to claim victory.
“We started well without the mistakes,” Sage said after the game. “After that, we had 20 minutes we were bad and Walter made saves with a lot of bravery.
“I think he kept us in the game, and that was really important at this moment, because you know and you saw that we led 2-1 at half-time.
“I think if it was 2-0 for them, the mentality and everything would be more difficult. His performance today was really crazy and I have to congratulate him because when you play as number two, it's always difficult.
“For the moment, we are really happy with all our keepers because they keep us in a good way to win games.”
