“I wouldn’t say I was the hero, no,” Riedewald joked to Palace TV. “But I am very, very happy tonight. I think everybody worked really hard tonight. It was a good game and it was great to be a part of it.
“It was a corner and the goalkeeper knocked it out. I was about to take it on the half-volley, changed my mind at the last moment and said: ‘Yeah, let me touch it down with my stomach or my chest on to my right foot’. It went in too.
“Two weeks ago I said I had never scored at Selhurst Park, I wanted to know how it feels to score in front of these amazing fans. Now I have and I’m so happy.”
Riedewald has not played as often as he would have liked this season, but reiterated that he was a professional and would take his chances as they came.
“[This season] has been really tough,” he admitted. “But I’m a professional football player, and the manager has to make decisions. Every player can play very well in this team, and he has to make a decision on who is going to start and who is going to be on the bench.
“Unfortunately I haven’t been playing that much this season, but I always come to the training ground with a big smile on my face. I was just happy that I was on the bench today – to see the fans again and see everybody again.
“For the team to win today, I was very proud.”
Now in the last eight, Riedewald was wary of looking too far ahead before the draw on Thursday.
“It’s two steps ahead – we have the quarter-finals [first] of course,” he said. “It’s a great achievement of what we’ve been building so far with the new team, the new staff and the manager.
“We get a good draw in the quarter-finals and you never know.”
