Wilfried Zaha Comes to the Defence of Christian Benteke After His Late Penalty Miss

Wilfried Zaha has come out to the defence of Christian Benteke after the Belgian striker became public enemy number one amongst Crystal Palace fans. 

During the Eagles' match at home to Bournemouth on Saturday, the scoreline was 2-2 in the final minute and Zaha had just won his side a second penalty. Designated penalty-taker, Luka Milivojevic had already scored a spot kick earlier in the first half, and was about to take the second penalty before Benteke wrestled the ball off him. 

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To the disgust of several players, as well as fans, Benteke went on to have his crucial penalty saved by Bournemouth's Asmir Begovic, robbing the South London club the chance of all three points.

The Belgian broke team protocol and now has the club and fans turning in on him, though Zaha has come to deflect some of the anger aimed towards his teammate. 

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On the player's personal Instagram account, Zaha wrote: "Anger is useless unless you channel it into positive energy and go again… in football anyway", as reported by the Metro.

Since Roy Hodgson took over at Crystal Palace, the team have shown the mettle and character to climb out of the relegation, though Hodgson, who was angry after his side's 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, will lament that his side were unable to win against a side around them.

Benteke is now without a goal in 12 games which may be the catalyst behind snatching the penalty from Milivojevic, but with the miss, the Belgian was booed off the pitch at full-time by Palace fans.