Kamada gives Crystal Palace victory over Aston Villa, but Eze is injured | Carabao Cup

Just as reports emerged that Oliver Glasner had until the upcoming international break to secure the job he had started so brilliantly just eight months ago, Crystal Palace went out and won back-to-back games. Whether this will be a Pyrrhic victory on a night where they lost Eberechi Eze and Adam Wharton to injury remains to be seen, but Daichi Kamada's goal midway through the second half allowed Palace to reach the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup for only the second time in 21 years.

Eze had given a strong-looking Palace team the lead before Jhon Durán equalized for Aston Villa, but despite losing two of their best players to injury in the first half, Glasner's team collected their first Premier League win of the season this triumph on Sunday. They will return to the West Midlands on Saturday in good spirits to take on Wolves.

Palace had ended last season with a 5-0 win over Villa, their sixth win in their last seven games, and Glasner was celebrated in south London. But the miserable start to this campaign had soon turned that into the opposite by the last few days.

The return of Tyrone Mings to the starting XI after his 445-day absence from the first team gave Villa a boost even before the game began. Within half an hour, however, it was the injury absences that troubled Palace the most, despite both teams conceding a goal each.

Losing an England midfielder to injury early in a Carabao Cup game can seem like a misfortune. Losing two looks like carelessness. Glasner must have seen this as an opportunity to build confidence, but when first Eze and then Wharton took to the pitch without a Villa player near them, it seemed Palace would receive cruel retribution for their ambition.

Clubs become alarmed when they field weaker teams in the cups, but this was a case where Palace fans might have forgiven their manager for saving his star men for the Premier League. When you're unlucky, sometimes it seems like you just can't win. Wharton is dealing with a groin injury and now surgery may need to be expedited.

Eze had given Palace the lead with a header in the eighth minute when a much-changed Villa defense stepped back and gave him the freedom of the Holte End penalty area to head in Daniel Muñoz's cross from the right. The ball had ricocheted to the right-back when Mings, returning from a cruciate ligament and meniscus knee injury on the opening day of last season, accidentally headed Wharton's intended ball across the channel.

Previously, Mings' every touch had been applauded from the rafters, on a night that also saw Boubacar Kamara return for his first start after an eight-month layoff with a cruciate ligament injury. With Emiliano Buendía, a previous-round goalscorer at Wycombe, also in the starting line-up, this was a night that showcased Villa's strength in depth.

Among those convinced they can earn more minutes in the Premier League, Durán followed up on the goals from his previous starts against Wycombe and Bologna, scoring his eighth goal of the season midway through the half.

Leon Bailey's pullback may have been intended for his captain John McGinn, but Durán stretched to reach the ball with his first touch and then directed his shot into the corner of the net, with debutant Matt Turner putting a weak hand on the ball got.

Despite this competition being their fourth priority this season, Villa were starting to gain the upper hand and this would have been reflected in the result if Durán had converted a rebound after Ian Maatsen's shot, which scurried forward unhindered, shortly afterwards it was parried by Turner at half-time.

Mings was determined to make the most of his return. After fending off two dangerous crosses from deep from the left wing, he turned angrily to Jaden Philogene as the young winger offered Palace too much space.

He then berated Joe Gauci after the stand-in goalkeeper, in his second appearance since joining from Adelaide United in February, failed to stop Daichi Kamada's shot that gave Palace the lead midway through the half.

It was the Japanese midfielder's second goal for the club since joining from Lazio in the summer, a fierce low shot from the edge of the box after Diego Carlos had played a loose ball out of McGinn's reach following a goal kick. But there was no doubt about the power and accuracy of the target, even if Mings was frustrated.