Crystal Palace are on a magnificent run in the Premier League at the moment and have been without two key players who have been representing their countries in the African Cup of Nations and the Asia Cup, this bringing the question of – what will it be like when Bolasie and Jedinak are back?
Yannick Bolasie turned out for DR Congo’s first group stage game of the African Cup of Nations against Zambia on Saturday in a game where he was billed as the player to watch for Eurosport’s coverage of the tournament and he stood up to those expectations as the Palace winger managed to get himself onto the scoresheet, equalising in the second half for his home nation after they went behind in the first seven minutes of only the third game of this years tournament being held in Equatorial Guinea.
It wasn’t just the goal either that showed him in good light as he continued his club form and expectations internationally as he came close to scoring on a number of occasions, making skillful and darting runs against full-backs that were struggling to deal with him – he was the stand out performer for his nation but the whole team left the game feeling that they could have come away with all three points after dominating possession for key parts of the game.
DR Congo face the Cape Verde Islands tomorrow at 7pm and with all teams in their group sitting on a point after two draws after the first set of fixtures, it is all to play for with the top two teams qualifying for the next stage of the competition.
Another Palace player at the African Cup of Nations is Kwesi Appiah who was on loan at Cambridge United for the first half of the season, earning him a spot in Avram Grant’s squad at the tournament; his side lost their opening game of their group stage campaign late-on against Senegal.
Appiah didn’t feature in the 2-1 defeat but was named among the substitutes in the Group C game where Ghana took an early lead from a penalty but after much hard work throughout the game, their in-experience started to show with Mame Biram Diouf heading home an equaliser for Sengal before Moussa Sow struck a late injury-time winner past Brimah.
Ghana face one of the competition favourites Algeria in their next game on Friday who disposed of South Africa, beating them by three goals to one.
Mile Jedinak is the final Palace player to be spoken about in today’s international update with the Crystal Palace and Australia captain set to make a return to action in the quarter finals of the Asia Cup after missing out on the final two group stage games against Oman and South Korea with an ankle injury that he picked up in the opening game of the tournament where he got himself onto the scoresheet from a penalty.
Australia are set to play China in Brisbane tomorrow in the late kick-off of the two Aisa Cup games and will have to be wary of their opponents as so far in the tournament they have been in impressive form, winning all three of their group games against Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and DPR Korea.
You can find out how all three of those players get on in their next round of fixtures over on our Twitter page @EaglesElement and back on here at TheEaglesElement.com in our next update on Friday.
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