The Crystal Palace and Millwell match in the 2025 FA Cup witnessed one of the worst violent scenes in the history of football perhaps.
After 6 minutes of the match, a fast long ball was passed to Jean-Philippe Mateta, who in turn ran to catch it, but the unexpected happened.
Goalkeeper Liam Roberts came out of his goal to try to catch the ball as well, but he used his foot in an extremely violent manner and it hit Mateta in the head.
The French striker was taken to hospital as a result of this violent tackle, which of course was accompanied by a direct red card for Roberts.
Didn’t think I’d ever see a kick worse than Nigel De Jong on Xabi Alonso, but the Millwall GK just went full Drew McIntyre on Matetapic.twitter.com/xuWaSnJiJs
— FPL Banger Podcast 🎙️ (@FPL_Banger) March 1, 2025
The Crystal Palace chairman commented on this tackle, describing it as the worst tackle he had seen in football history.
What is outrageous is that the Millwell fans present at Selhurst Park Stadium chanted hostile chants against Mateta while he was lying on the ground and in extreme pain from the tackle.
Both Roberts and his team are expected to face severe penalties from the FA for all these incidents.
It is worth noting that Crystal Palace eventually managed to win 3-1 and qualify for the quarter-finals.
