Palace reaction: Davies on defence, Lamela and Lucas on milestones

We might have left it late to snatch a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Sunday, but our players still had plenty to talk about when we caught up with them once the dust had settled at Selhurst Park.

Harry Kane’s 89th-minute header, which gave us a 1-0 win, was his 150th club career goal and his 35th of the season, but there were a couple of other important personal milestones reached within the squad at the same time.

Erik Lamela marked his 100th Premier League appearance with a place in the starting line-up, while recent signing Lucas Moura stepped off the bench in the second half for his Premier League debut, having so far featured in the Champions League and FA Cup.

We spoke to both Erik and Lucas, plus Ben Davies and Eric Dier, who lined up in a revamped back four, to talk about how things transpired in SE25…

Erik Lamela

Thoughts on his 100th Premier League appearance
“I’m very proud. I always enjoy playing in this team and I am so happy to be here. Week by week I am training hard to get in my best condition. I was out for so long but now I’m back again and we have to complete for our places. We are all good players, up front and at the back. The team is so strong now, everyone is fit and we need to show every week, every day in training who deserves to play, but the most important thing is we all play for the team and we all want the team to win. Today I was substituted but I celebrated so much at the end with the goal because the three points are really important for us.”

Views on the match
“It was a very difficult game because they were close at the back, so it was more difficult to score. Maybe if we’d scored earlier the game would have changed but we couldn’t do this. Thankfully at the end we found the goal and it was amazing to celebrate at the end. We always believed until the end – Harry is amazing and I’m happy for him because he fully deserved the goal. How he trains and how he plays, he always puts everything on the pitch so that’s why I’m happy for him and for the three points.”

Lucas Moura

How does it feel to make your Premier League debut?
“I am so happy to play my first game in the Premier League – for me, the biggest league in the world. It’s really a pleasure to play for the team. I’ve joined a very big club with a very good team, I feel important for the team and I am so happy with that.”

It was a tough one to come into…
“Yes, it was a very hard game against a team that’s very strong but I’m happy, I think we played well, we were compact with organisation and I am happy to help the team. It was very, very difficult against strong players who are physically powerful, we needed to be careful of the counter-attack but I am happy because we have Harry Kane and he always scores! We played well, like a team, like a family really and that’s why I think we won the game.”

Ben Davies

On our revamped defence owing to Jan Vertonghen’s knock in training
“It’s the first one Jan has missed this year in the Premier League so it was a bit of an adjustment for us, but Eric slotted in and made it look easy. In different circumstances they looked to play long, it’s obviously tough but I thought we handled it well and we did our job.”

On our pursuit of the opening goal
“It’s a tough place to come, the conditions are tricky but we created a lot of chances today and on another day it could have been three or four. Sometimes you have games like that, even this season where we haven’t been able to break teams down, so it was nice to be able to get that one at the end. It’s just a great feeling to get over the line. It’s one of those where you just pray one of our boys is going to get on the end of the corner, I think Harry put a great header back across the goal and when that goes in, it’s just jubilation. You can’t summarise how good a feeling it is to get that goal after you’ve been trying for 90 minutes to get it.”

Eric Dier

Thoughts on the game
“I thought we played well throughout and controlled the game, but we were very disappointed not to have scored earlier. It felt like it was going to be one of those days after a while where we couldn’t score but thankfully in the end Harry got that goal which was so important for us.”

On playing in central defence
“I feel very good playing there. It’s never good having to do that through an injury to such an important player like Jan, he’s been fantastic all season so it’s really disappointing that he got hurt yesterday and hopefully he’s back as soon as possible, but within this team, it’s easy to play anywhere.”

On the clean sheet
“I think we did our job, tried to stop the counter-attack as much as possible, we were well positioned for that, we controlled the line and tried to move the ball as quickly as possible to make it easier for our team-mates in front of us. I think we did all those things.”