Crystal Palace vs Watford - Team News, Match Preview & Likely Line-Ups

Venue: Wembley Stadium Date: Monday 27th May K/o: 15:00

Team News

Crystal Palace will be without their top goalscorer Glenn Murray for this afternoon's Championship Play-Off Final against Watford at Wembley Stadium. The division's leading scorer picked up a cruciate injury in Palace's semi-final win over Brighton and Aaron Wilbraham is expected to deputise. Watford have no injury concerns and manager Gianfranco Zola has a fully-fit squad to select from. Daniel Pudil and Matthew Briggs will each be hoping to get the nod at left wing-back while Jonathan Hogg and Cristian Battocchio will similarly contest a spot in Zola's midfield.

Key Stats

This is the 110th meeting of Crystal Palace and Watford. Palace have won 44 of the previous 109 over 92 years, and Watford 40. This will be the second time the two sides have met in the Championship play-offs. They faced each other in the Championship semi-finals in 2006, when Watford won 3-0 at Selhurst Park, and held out for a goalless draw in the second leg on their own ground. Ian Holloway's club earned their place at Wembley after beating Brighton 2-0 in the second leg of the play-off semi-final at the Amex Stadium, having played out a goalless first leg on home soil. Gianfranco Zola's side qualified for this final with a last ditch goal from Troy Deeney to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory over Leicester in the play-off semi-finals. (BBC)

Likely Line-Ups

Crystal Palace Speroni, Ward, Moxey, Delaney, Gabbidon, Dikgacoi, Garvan, Jedinak, Williams, Zaha, Wilbraham Watford Almunia, Briggs, Doyley, Cassetti, Chalobah, Ekstrand, Anya, Abdi, Battocchio, Deeney, Vydra Now click "Next" for our Match Preview
Contributor
Contributor

Joseph is an accredited football journalist and has interviewed nearly all of the current 20 Barclay's Premier League managers. He is also a correspondent for Bleacher Report and has written for Caught Offside and Give Me Football.