Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke has been angrily confronted by his team-mates over the stoppage-time penalty miss in the 2-2 draw against Bournemouth at Selhurst Park on the weekend, according to a report on the Evening Standard.
Palace had already scored one penalty through Luka Milivojevic but Belgian forward Benteke took the ball away from the midfielder for the second penalty and ended up missing.
Manager Roy Hodgson revealed after the game that Benteke made the decision himself and was not told by the management to take the penalty.
There was a heated inquest in the dressing room between the players as to why Benteke took it upon himself to take the spot kick after Milivojevic converted the first one accurately.
Benteke was one of the first Palace players to leave the stadium following the draw.
The striker has not scored a goal this season and was booed off the pitch by the Palace fans in a result that felt like a loss.
Hodgson said:
If we get relegated and two points in May would have kept us up, I will say maybe these points are the ones that cost us.
Before the penalty was taken, Jason Puncheon and James Tomkins could be seen screaming from the sidelines at Benteke to hand over the ball to Milivojevic but the message didn’t get to the striker, whose tame penalty was easily saved by Asmir Begovic.
Hodgson now has to decide if he will drop the striker for the fixture against Watford at home on Tuesday night.
