Roy Hodgson Confirms Christian Benteke Decided to Take Late Penalty as Miss Costs Palace 3 Points

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson confirmed in his post-match duties that Christian Benteke decided himself to take the late penalty against Bournemouth, a penalty that the Belgian subsequently failed to convert. 

Palace had taken the lead in the game thanks to a Luka Milivojevic penalty and Scott Dann goal  after Jermain Defoe opened the scoring in the game, before he then produced a spectacular volley to send the sides in level at the break.

The game seemed destined to be heading for a draw, before a controversial decision to award Palace a penalty after Charlie Daniel's challenge on Wilfried Zaha, but Benteke saw his weak effort saved by Asmir Begovic deep into added time, much to the dismay of Hodgson.

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Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: "I am frustrated, especially when you see a penalty missed in the last minutes of the game, by someone who has not been designated as a penalty taker, but has decided at the last minute to take the penalty.

"Really what he needs to do is to score, otherwise he will be subject to the wrath from his manager, coaches and teammates, because they'll say really and truly, you shouldn't have done that."

Hodgson believed that despite the penalty miss, his side deserved all three points after taking a total of 24 shots in the game, more than double their opponents.

He continued, stating: "We were clearly the more dominant and had more chances in the first half.

"The perfect opportunity is given to you in the 91st minute but we didn't take it, and you can't blame anybody but yourself for that."

The point sees Palace drop to the foot of the Premier League table after a run of three successive draws, with Hodgson admitting that this result now puts pressure on his side heading into their midweek game, at home to Watford on Tuesday.

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Hodgson concluded, saying: "Of course it is, and if we don't win on Tuesday, it will put more pressure on Saturday!

"The bottom line is we are in the bottom three, we are down there, and we are divorced from the teams where we would like to be by quite a few points."