Crystal Palace 4 Hull City 0: Zaha, Benteke on target to send Tigers down to Championship + Highlight

Hull City's relegation from the Premier League was
confirmed on Sunday as they suffered a 4-0 defeat
to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
First-half goals from Wilfried Zaha and Christian
Benteke, a Luka Milivojevic penalty and a late
Patrick van Aanholt strike secured the win for the
home side to guarantee their survival, and that of
Swansea City, while condemning Hull to a return to
the Championship.
Marco Silva's side realistically needed a win to
keep their fight to stay up going until the final
round of matches, with Swansea's win over
Sunderland on Saturday leaving them four points
adrift of safety and with a far worse goal difference.
Their hopes took a huge blow after just three
minutes, however, as Zaha pounced on Andrea
Ranocchia's mistake to put Palace in front, before
Benteke's powerful header doubled the lead before
the break.
Youngster Jarrod Bowen had a clear chance to
grab a lifeline on the hour mark but Wayne
Hennessey did not have a save to make in the
Palace goal, and Milivojevic's spot-kick and Van
Aanholt's close-range effort made certain that Sam
Allardyce's record of never being relegated from
the top flight remains intact.
Hull, however, will join Middlesbrough and
Sunderland in dropping down to the Championship
for next season.

Hull kept a first away clean sheet in six attempts in
their last game on the road against Southampton,
but they found themselves behind with only three
minutes played in the sunshine of south London.
Ranocchia swung a foot to clear the ball following
a Michael Dawson header but completely missed
his kick, allowing Zaha to race into the penalty
area and slot the ball confidently beneath Eldin
Jakupovic.
Palace spirits were suddenly soaring and James
Tomkins nearly made it 2-0 after 10 minutes,
nodding the ball narrowly wide after meeting Jason
Puncheon's cross from the right at the far post.
Hull appeared not to learn the lesson from that
warning, though, and Benteke doubled the lead 11
minutes before half-time after running
unchallenged to power a header down and into the
net from Puncheon's corner.

Puncheon had earlier been fortunate not to concede
a penalty after deflecting a Kamil Grosicki free-kick
behind for a corner with his hand, and it seemed
that luck was firmly against Silva's side when,
minutes into the second half, the injured Harry
Maguire had to be replaced after Ranocchia and
Andy Robertson had already been substituted at
half-time.
Bowen was one of those attacking replacements
and he missed a golden chance to halve the deficit
on 61 minutes, miscuing a half-volley from a Sam
Clucas cross from the left with the goal at his
mercy at the far post.
The visitors enjoyed 74 per cent of the possession
in the second half as Palace dropped deep to
preserve their advantage, but they rarely looked
likely to add to their meagre total of 36 league
goals for the season.
Benteke skewed a promising chance for a third
wide but it proved to be of little consequence.
Dawson brought down Jeffrey Schlupp as he raced
into the area on the counter-attack, allowing
Milivojevic to dispatch the penalty in confident
fashion with just five minutes of normal time left.
And as the clock ticked into injury time, James
McArthur capitalised on some uncertain defending
to slide the ball through to the unmarked Van
Aanholt, who slotted the ball beneath Jakupovic as

the home fans began to celebrate in earnest.