We want to win the cup’ – Ben Chilwell wants to add to trophy collection during Crystal Palace loan spell
Ben Chilwell is looking to add to his medal collection after helping guide Crystal Palace to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
The defender is on loan at the south London club from Chelsea until the end of the season and made his first start for the Eagles, playing all 90 minutes in their 3-1 win over Millwall in the fifth round on Saturday.
After Millwall goalkeeper Liam Roberts was sent off in the eighth minute for a horror challenge on Jean-Philippe Mateta, which saw the Palace attacker go straight to hospital, an own goal from Japhet Tanganga put the Eagles ahead in the 33rd minute.
Defender Daniel Munoz doubled the Palace lead seven minutes later following a mix-up in the Millwall defence, but the visitors came back into the game just before half-time when Wes Harding pulled one back in the 13th minute of first-half injury time.
However, just inside the last 10 minutes, Eddie Nketiah looped home a header to make it 3-1 and secure progression through to the last eight for the home side.
“We knew what the game was going to be today. It was never going to be the prettiest of games. It’s a derby and we knew Millwall we’re going to make it difficult, going to make it a fight. Their fans got behind them throughout the whole game and our fans were brilliant as well,” said Chilwell after the win.
“Until they scored their goal, we controlled the game, and then they scored just before half-time, which was a bit disappointing. To get into a quarter-final of a cup is a great achievement. We knew they were going to come out in the second half and make it difficult again. It was not as pretty as we would have liked and we didn’t control the game as much as we would have liked, but Eddie gets a great header for the third goal to settle us down a little bit going into the last 10 minutes.
“The important thing today was to progress,” added the 2021 Champions League winner. “Obviously, it’s not as far as we want to go, but it’s a great achievement to get into the quarter-finals, and the derby win is the most important.”
Despite the satisfaction of winning, Chilwell was quick to send his thoughts to his teammate Mateta, who posted a message after the game saying he was doing well while praising his teammates for doing a great job with the victory.
“We’re all wishing him the best and hopefully a speedy recovery, because he’s such a plus when we have him in the squad. Not just on the pitch, but off the pitch too, he’s such a great character in the dressing room,” said the 28-year-old. “We haven’t seen JP, as he went straight to hospital and I didn’t see the actual injury, but I heard the gash is quite bad. I don’t want to go too much into the challenge itself [but] it’s a derby and we’ll just go with maybe the occasion got the better of him (Roberts).”
Chilwell and his team now look forward to a last eight battle at the end of the month and the defender, who played in Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to Leicester in the 2021 FA Cup Final, is in no doubt about what the objective is for this season with the SE25 side.
“We’re not going to hide from the fact that we want to win the cup. For sure. That’s definitely something that is spoken about in the changing room,” he said.
“Of course, it’s every game at a time, but there’s definitely talks that we want to go far in this competition. It’s still a while away and we’ve still got a lot of games until then, but for sure, it’s something that we’re ambitious about in the team.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised coming in how ambitious the squad is in the league and in the FA Cup and how far the team want to go in them.”
