Stoke ship yet another lead! Zaha romps through the middle of the park. He slips the ball to his left for Loftus-Cheek, who shuttles it on further. McArthur, on the overlap, slides the ball across Butland and into the bottom right! It had been coming.
67 min: Sobhi comes on for Crouch.
65 min: Milivojevic tries to get his head onto the free kick, but nothing significant occurs. Pieters clatters Zaha. Nerves are jangling now. This is all very edgy.
63 min: Bauer is booked for a fairly basic challenge on Zaha. Before the free kick can be taken, Benteke comes on for Cabaye, and there’s some playground shoving on the edge of the Stoke area. Johnson, 33, and Tomkins, 29, are booked.
61 min: Palace push Stoke back. But suddenly Stoke break out. Allen rolls a fine pass down the right to release Shaqiri into acres of space. The ball’s rolled inside for Diouf, who should power clear but can’t sort his feet out. Then Crouch tries to take up possession on the edge of the area, but he goes over instead of getting a shot away. What a chance to put some daylight between themselves and Palace!
60 min: Milivojevic chips the free kick over the Stoke back line, but Tomkins, coming in from the left, can’t stop the ball from going out for a goal kick.
59 min: Palace are well on top now. They’ve enjoyed 76% possession during the last ten minutes. Shawcross comes through the back of Townsend, 30 yards from the Stoke goal. Free kick, and a chance for Palace to load the box.
57 min: Zaha turns crisply down the left and slips a pass down the wing for Townsend. Townsend flashes the ball across the face of goal, where Zaha and Loftus-Cheek look to poke home, but the winger had gone early and is rightly flagged for offside. A totally unnecessary mistake, and Palace are currently burning chances to get back into this match.
56 min: ... a short-corner routine goes badly wrong. Van Aanholt tries to rescue the situation with a shot from distance, but his effort flies miles over the bar.
55 min: Milivojevic has a dig from 25 yards. The ball’s deflected wide left for a corner. From which ...
54 min: Shaqiri makes to chip the ball past Milivojevic, who raises an arm to block it. The Palace midfielder is booked for deliberate handball.
53 min: Allen tries to release Shaqiri down the right, but there’s too much juice on the ball.
51 min: We go again. Sakho and Crouch tussle under a high ball. Crouch is penalised for being overly aggressive. He’s got Sakho’s face in his hand at one point, as he shoves him backwards to the ground. He’s very lucky not to see yellow. Some referees, on a hair-trigger, might even have flashed red. An unnecessary risk, given the predicament his team is in.
50 min: So much for that lively start: Zouma spends a couple of minutes getting treatment.
48 min: Palace string together some pretty triangles in the middle of the park. Suddenly Cabaye slips one down the left channel for Loftus-Cheek, whose shot from the edge of the area is stopped by a sliding Pieters. The ball ricochets off Loftus-Cheek and out for a goal kick; it hasn’t been his day so far. But Palace nearly sliced Stoke open there. A lively start to the half.
47 min: Shawcross lifts the ball long. Crouch, on the edge of the D, heads on to Diouf, who has his back to goal but a chance to flick Shaqiri free to his right. The flick doesn’t quite come off, but that was a sweet move, proof that long-ball football can be beautiful too. It would have been a fine goal.
We’re off again! Stoke get the party restarted. No half-time changes.
Half-time reading: It’s the Women’s FA Cup Final later today. We’ll be covering it here, so get up to speed with Louise Taylor’s preview of the big Wembley showdown between Chelsea and cup specialists Arsenal. See you at 5.30pm for that one!
Stoke haven’t been particularly coherent. But Xherdan Shaqiri, with a little help from Ruben Loftus-Cheek, has given them a precious half-time lead. As things stand, their survival bid remains a live prospect!
45 min +4: Ndiaye’s back up.
45 min +2: Zaha dribbles down the left, momentarily bothering Stoke. Then Kelly tries to find someone in the middle from a position out right. Ndiaye sticks out a leg to block and takes a sore whack. He’s down getting treatment.
45 min +1: That goal has given Stoke a huge lift, as you’d expect. Pieters launches into the Palace box. Shawcross is causing the visitors concern. Hennessey just about deals with the situation.
45 min: Loftus-Cheek played a big part in Palace’s downfall there. He tries to make amends immediately, chesting down a Townsend cross from the right. But he can’t sort his feet out, ten yards from goal, and Stoke clear. There will be four added minutes of this intriguing half.
44 min: Stoke haven’t been very good. But that was a delicious free kick. And the stadium explodes into life! Shaqiri and Lambert cavort on the touchline accordingly.
Shaqiri curls the free kick into the top right! The ball took a little deflection off the eyebrows of Loftus-Cheek, sending it right into the corner. Hennessey would have had little chance of saving Shaqiri’s effort anyway, but that deflection definitely took it out of his reach!
42 min: Loftus-Cheek tries to break upfield from deep. Allen robs him and feeds Shaqiri, who is upended by Loftus-Cheek. A free kick, just to the right of the Palace D. One for Shaqiri, who springs up in excitable fashion with a view to taking the set piece.
40 min: Ward, injured earlier, can’t continue. Kelly comes on as he limps off.
38 min: Ward dallies over a throw. Oh, it’s not Palace’s! He takes his own sweet time to give the ball back to Bauer, who has steam coming out of his ears. Palace are pressing Stoke’s buttons this afternoon. The crowd respond accordingly. Magnificent pantomime.
36 min: After Zaha is bollocked by the referee for moaning about the minor incident with Johnson, Palace work their corner in from the left. Cabaye tries to fire a spectacular one into the top right from the left of the D. The effort just about stays inside the stadium.
35 min: Zaha, fuelled by righteous ire, swans past Shawcross in the middle of the park. He slides a pass down the inside-left channel for Townsend, who very nearly breaks clear on goal, but makes do with winning a corner off Zouma.
34 min: Zaha threatens to burst down the inside-left channel, but Johnson eases him off the ball. Zaha sits on the turf, glowering. Johnson wanders off.
32 min: Palace work the ball to the right wing. A cross. Cabaye loops a header goalwards from the edge of the box, but it flies harmlessly over and Butland has it covered anyway.
31 min: ... Van Aanholt volleys from the edge of the area. Johnson closes him down. His block leads to another corner on the left.
30 min: Stoke press Palace back a little. Johnson nearly finds Diouf in the middle from the right. Pieters crosses from the left, but Crouch heads across goal instead of going for it. Palace then break up the other end and earn a corner. From which ...
29 min: Pieters is back up. But this stuttering action isn’t helping Stoke, who need to keep press, press, pressing in search of that precious win. Johnson tries to get things going again with a run down the right, but his cross towards Crouch is easily cleared.
27 min: This is stop-start. Now Pieters is down, having taken a whack on the kneecap from McArthur, who was attempting to boot the ball at the time. Ooyah, oof. A sore one.
26 min: Ward’s back on. Loud boos as he takes possession of the ball, then offloads it. But he’s moving a bit gingerly at the moment.
25 min: Ward is down getting some treatment. The crowd think he’s trying it on, of course they do, but close-ups suggest the full-back is struggling a bit. He limps off with the physio, and for now Palace are down to ten men.
24 min: That move has given Stoke succour. Shaqiri spreads the play to the left. Bauer hoicks a cross into the mixer. Crouch rises with Hennessey, and fouls the keeper, but for the first time in the match, Palace are looking a little unsettled.
22 min: Stoke finally put something together, and it’s the best chance of the game. Shaqiri opens his legs and romps down the right. He curls into the centre, finding Diouf six yards out. Diouf tries to guide a downward header into the bottom left, and though it bounces wide it’s not too far away. Some promise for the desperate hosts.
20 min: It continues to be scrappy. Stoke can’t get anything going at all. Pieters rakes a long pass forward out for a goal kick. That was nowhere near a team-mate. The stadium has fallen a little quiet.
17 min: On the touchline, Lambert loses his rag over a throw-in near the halfway line. Passions are running high. Stoke are a collective study in agitation right now.
15 min: Palace start stroking it about patiently. They’re slowly beginning to dictate terms, some control amid the mayhem. The ball’s worked to Zaha on the right. Zaha fires across goal and left of the target. Not far away.
13 min: Now Cabaye stays down after being clipped by Crouch. The big man offers a hand of friendship, but an irritated Cabaye refuses it. The Stoke faithful give him the bird. A pattern developing here.
12 min: Palace are taking their time over throw-ins, trying to take the sting out of Stoke’s early play. A ploy straight out of the Mourinho-at-Anfield ‘14 playbook. Clever Roy. The crowd don’t like it much.
10 min: Townsend zips down the right and cuts into the centre. He shoots low for the goal, from the edge of the Stoke box, but his effort is blocked bravely by Pieters. Both teams are attacking with purpose, though Palace’s moves look a little more measured, smoother, less hysterical.
9 min: Bauer powers down the left and reaches the byline. He looks for Crouch in the middle, but his low cross is snaffled by Hennessey.
8 min: Bauer races down the right, after a long ball. For a second, it looks like he’ll reach it, and move menacingly towards goal, but he can’t quite reach. Then Palace go straight up the other end, Loftus-Cheek drifting in from the left and curling a magnificent effort inches wide of the top-right corner. That would have been a picture-book goal ... but not quite.
6 min: Allen bursts down the Stoke left. He’s dispossessed. Zaha races along the Palace right, to little effect. We’re up to 110mph.
4 min: Butland blooters long. Crouch rises above Tomkins, and concedes a free kick. This is all very intense. Shapeless and unpredictable, with passes at a premium. It’s like a Champions League semi-final.
2 min: And now Crouch is caught offside, chasing a Diouf flick-on. This is being played at 100mph at the moment. What a hectic, end-to-end start. What an atmosphere!
And we’re off! Palace get the ball rolling. Or, more accurately, bouncing around hysterically in the middle of the park. But then some order, as Townsend breaks down the left and feeds Loftus-Cheek on his inside. Loftus-Cheek tries to feed the ball forward down the channel for Zaha, but the pass is too strong. Goal kick.
The teams are out! Stoke City are in their famous red-and-white stripes, while Palace play in their black change strip. It’s a sunny day in the Potteries; the atmosphere at the Bet 365 Stadium is blistering. As it almost always is, rain or shine, mid-table irrelevance or relegation battle. Two clubs with supporters who really know how to whip up a beautiful noise. This is magnificent. A quick blast of Delilah and then we’ll be off!
Some pre-match praise for the Hodge, courtesy of Felix Wood. “Palace under Hodgson have become good to watch and have pulled themselves out of free-fall, with an injury list that others would have hidden behind. I hope that posterity remembers Hodgson not as the man who had Kane on corner duty but as someone who consistently made small clubs and unfashionable players punch above their weight. And also for any young players coming through, Zaha and Loftus-Cheek’s experience this season will attest to the fact that a team that will play you and a manager that will allow you to achieve is better than being squashed at one of the mega-clubs.”
Paul Lambert talks! “We have to try and win, throw everything at it. We have 90 minutes to do it, so we can’t go at it from the off, but the intent is there. We can’t attack for 90 minutes, it’s impossible. But if we win today, we’re right back in it. We’ve lacked in forward areas, that’s evident, we don’t have the personnel. But hopefully someone will create something and we’ll get a goal. Palace won’t take their foot off the gas, we have to be ready for that, and be on the front foot. The crowd will be right for us, and drive us on. We just need a break, and play well to win.”
Roy Hodgson speaks to Sky. “I hope we have the same mindset we’ve had all season. I’m really hoping it won’t change at all. We want to play as well as we possibly can to the end of the season, not least because of the integrity of the league, and it’s a mistake when teams switch off. We’re not going to switch off. If we lose, it’s because Stoke will have played better than us. When you play against a team that is going to be as motivated and fired up as they’re going to be, it’s always going to be a problem for you. What’s more, they have very good players. We have prepared the players, but now it’s all about the actors on the field. We’re aware it’s last-chance saloon time for Stoke.”
If It Ain’t Broke I: Stoke City earned a commendable point at Liverpool this time last weekend, so the one and only change to their starting XI is enforced. The injured Bruno Martins Indi is replaced by Glen Johnson.
If It Ain’t Broke II: Crystal Palace won 5-0 last weekend. They’ve named the same team.
Stoke City: Butland, Johnson, Shawcross, Zouma, Pieters, Shaqiri, Allen, Ndiaye, Bauer, Diouf, Crouch.
Subs: Ireland, Adam, Cameron, Fletcher, Haugaard, Sobhi, Campbell.
Crystal Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Tomkins, Sakho, Van Aanholt, McArthur, Milivojevic, Cabaye, Loftus-Cheek, Townsend, Zaha.
Subs: Sorloth, Lee, Schlupp, Cavalieri, Benteke, Wan Bissaka, Kelly.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire).
If Stoke City win their last two games of the season, there’s a reasonable chance of their staying up. It’s not beyond the realms: they just need two from Southampton, Swansea, Huddersfield and West Ham to end the season in miserable fashion, while winning their own matches today against Crystal Palace and next weekend at Swansea.
On the face of it, far from an impossible dream. The only small problem: they’ve only won one of their last 18 games, and only scored four times in their last eight. Gritty points at Anfield are all good and well, but now they’ve got to start winning.
Can they complete stage one of this great escape against Palace? Well, Roy Hodgson’s side aren’t yet mathematically safe ... but come on. So there’s a slight chance they might not be matching Paul Lambert’s men for desperate intensity this afternoon. And Stoke did beat Palace the last time these teams met in the Potteries. But to balance all that out: Palace are four unbeaten, have just completed a 5-0 thrashing of 2015/16 champions Leicester, and have won six of the last seven against Stoke.
Whatever: Stoke need to win their first game since January 20. If they don’t, they’re as good as down; a point today might not be enough to retain hope, depending on other results. A loss and they’re gone. It’s the relegation precipice. It’s the last-chance saloon. It’s the final roll of the dice. It’s on!
Kick off: 12.30pm BST.