Crystal Palace beat Wolves 3-1 in their Championship clash at Selhurst Park
Last Updated: January 1, 2013 5:44pm
Andre Moritz: Netted two goals to secure Crystal Palace win
Andre Moritz brought a touch of Samba magic to Selhurst Park as Crystal Palace beat Wolves 3-1 on New Year's Day.
The Brazilian midfielder curled in a pair of stunning free-kicks to fire Palace to their first win in six matches.
Yannick Bolasie was also on target before Sylvan Ebanks-Blake hit a consolation for Wolves, while Wilfried Zaha showed just why the Premier League's big guns are lining up to sign him this month.
The England winger was in sparkling form as Palace got their promotion bid back on track.
Whether Zaha will be around to see it through remains to be seen, however, after another performance which illustrated why he is apparently a January target for Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.
Wolves have no such worries as they continue to head in the opposite direction after a third successive defeat.
Yet they came agonisingly close to taking an eighth-minute lead when the Palace defence opened up for young midfielder David Davis, who charged forward and crashed a 20-yard shot against the crossbar.
But the Eagles soon began to dominate with Zaha the central figure. The 20-year-old skipped past Stephen Ward before cutting the ball back to Moritz, who scuffed wide from eight yards.
Zaha then played a neat one-two with Jonathan Parr before driving narrowly over the bar and also had a shot hacked off the line. And the goal Palace had been threatening arrived after half an hour when Bakary Sako felled Zaha outside the area and Moritz buried free-kick number one.
Zaha was also the architect of Palace's second nine minutes later, sliding in Bolasie to poke his second goal of the season past Carl Ikeme.
With Wolves on the ropes Mile Jedinak fired narrowly wide and Glenn Murray was off target with a header before half-time.
But the third goal came five minutes into the second half when Moritz proved his first free-kick was no fluke by curling in a carbon copy after Roger Johnson had fouled him 25 yards out.
Moritz could have claimed a memorable hat-trick had an attempted overhead kick come off before Wolves managed to pull one back in the 75th minute through Ebanks-Blake. The striker was quickest to react to Jamie O'Hara's free-kick into the area, turning sharply to hit his 10th goal of the season.
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Matches
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npower Championship
Table
npower Championship
| Pos | Team | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cardiff City | 46 | 87 |
| 2 | Hull City | 46 | 79 |
| 3 | Watford | 46 | 77 |
| 4 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 46 | 75 |
| 5 | Crystal Palace | 46 | 72 |
| 6 | Leicester City | 46 | 68 |
| 7 | Bolton Wanderers | 46 | 68 |
| 8 | Nottingham Forest | 46 | 67 |
| 9 | Charlton Athletic | 46 | 65 |
| 10 | Derby County | 46 | 61 |
| 11 | Burnley | 46 | 61 |
| 12 | Birmingham City | 46 | 61 |
| 13 | Leeds United | 46 | 61 |
| 14 | Ipswich Town | 46 | 60 |
| 15 | Blackpool | 46 | 59 |
| 16 | Middlesbrough | 46 | 59 |
| 17 | Blackburn Rovers | 46 | 58 |
| 18 | Sheffield Wednesday | 46 | 58 |
| 19 | Huddersfield Town | 46 | 58 |
| 20 | Millwall | 46 | 56 |
| 21 | Barnsley | 46 | 55 |
| 22 | Peterborough United | 46 | 54 |
| 23 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 46 | 51 |
| 24 | Bristol City | 46 | 41 |
