A lapse in concentration meant Swansea City dropped points at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday, but manager Francesco Guidolin says his side deserved to win.

Gylfi Sigurdsson's superb first half free-kick put the Welsh outfit ahead, but Scott Dann equalised for Palace just two minutes after the restart as the Swans started slower in the second period.

However, Guidolin took plenty of positives from the 1-1 draw - despite the team's precarious position in the standings - with him particularly impressed with their performance.

Plenty of positives

"I think it was the best game for us, in my opinion," the Italian coach told the club's official website.

Whilst he recognised that it wasn't going to be "easy" for the team due to "the weather" - conditions not favouring "a team who try and play football on the floor" - he was very happy with Swansea's display.

He believes his team "played well for 90 minutes" and that "it was only for a few minutes at the start of the second half" that they "weren't so good."

"We deserved to win," he said. "We had many chances to score in both the first and second halves."

Swansea had plenty of chances, but only Sigurdsson's free-kick hit the back of the net. | Photo: Getty
Swansea had plenty of chances, but only Sigurdsson's free-kick hit the back of the net. | Photo: Getty

These were chances that came and went though, with Swansea lacking cutting edge in the final third to put the game to bed before the break. This remained the case when the scores were level too, with the hosts unable to get their noses back in front, despite creating opportunities "right until the end" of the game.

Ultimately though, the Swans still emerged from the match with a point that they didn't have beforehand, which pleases Guidolin after he stressed that the team "must take points from every match."

"The table is better than three weeks ago," the manager added, which is another positive to take. "It should have been three [points]," he said, but it is still "one" and the team "will try to win again next Saturday."

But still some areas to improve 

Though the Italian was very upbeat post-match, he remained realistic and knows that Swansea must "improve in defending set pieces."

It was from a dead ball that Dann managed to equalise, beating Federico Fernandez to the ball on a bad day for the Argentine, and now Guidolin insists that the team "will work hard to improve" in this area.

"Every team in the Premier League is strong from set pieces," he said, which includes the Swans as they "also had two big chances to score from set pieces" on Saturday. Defending them, however, is not one of their strong points.

As a result, he wants his team to work on not conceding needless free-kicks and corners, as it would be "better" for them not to face them. Still, he knows this is not entirely "possible," and so an improvement in defending them is as required as a discipline not to give them away.

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About the author
Ameé Ruszkai
Head of the Sunderland, Swansea City and women football sections at VAVEL UK. Email: [email protected]