ROY Hodgson heaped praise on Joachim Andersen after the Danish defender struck an unlikely equaliser to rescue a point in today’s 1-1 draw at Brentford.
Palace could have took a ninth minute lead after Odsonne Edouard shook off Ethan Pinnock before bursting into the box, only for the Bees defender to recover the situation and make a vital block.
It was the hosts who went in front on18 minutes, Kevin Schade cutting in from the left and into the area, getting the better of two Palace defenders and then smashing home into the top corner.
Yoane Wissa and Nathan Collins had late first half opportunities to double Brentford’s advantage and it took until midway through the second period before anything of note happened when Mark Flekken tipped over Edouard’s free-kick.
The Bees keeper was in fine form again shortly afterwards, first denying Jefferson Lerma and then Jordan Ayew from the follow-up.
But Palace’s travelling contingent didn’t have to wait too much longer for parity to be restored in the 76th minute.
Andersen exchanged passes with Ayew before drilling home a low angled shot from inside the area which finally beat the impressive Flekken.
Hodgson was asked afterwards about Eberechi Eze’s contribution, but the Eagles boss was far more interested in singling out his point-saving defender.
The Palace manager said: “Eze was good. He is Eze – that is what Eze is, he is a very fine player.
“I’ve got to say if you were going to pick out one player I was waiting for you to say Joachim Andersen. I thought he was the outstanding player today in our team and was the outstanding player on the field today.
“I never get tired of saying how good Eze is and we expect more and more from him.
“When his good pal Olise comes back I think we will cause teams even more problems than we were able to do today.”
Hodgson added: “I thought he (Andersen) was a colossus today. He won every header at both ends of the field. He won every challenge he went into.
“I thought he was a leader. He drove the team forward, he wasn’t afraid in actual fact to come more than midway in the opponent’s half as we saw.
“He was playing balls, spraying it around from about 20 to 25 yards from goal.
“That was great responsibility that he took there and I thought it was only fitting that he was the one who got the goal, albeit it wasn’t a classic.
“But you can’t always have a classic. They’ve scored a classic goal with a fantastic cross-field pass, lovely ball control, beat the full-back, cut inside, get your shot away before the block comes in and put it right in the far corner.
“That’s your ‘Match of the Day’ moment. I didn’t get one of those, I got a point from my goal and that’s what matters to me.”
