Jean-Philippe Mateta apologised to his Crystal Palace team-mates despite scoring the hat-trick which secured a 3-3 draw with Bournemouth.
The French striker held his nerve to roll in a stoppage-time penalty to equalise, but then held his head in his hands moments later after blazing a glorious chance to win it over the crossbar.
Eagles boss Oliver Glasner said: “He apologised. He doesn’t have to.
“You can’t take every chance. He scored three. I said be proud. A hat-trick in the Premier League is not easy and he deserved it.”
Ryan Christie thought he had fired Bournemouth to the top of the Premier League – for a couple of hours at least – after he made it 3-2 with a minute of normal time remaining.
But soon after Bafode Diakite was adjudged by referee Jarrod Gillett to have fouled Marc Guehi as the pair grappled at a corner.
Cherries boss Andoni Iraola felt the VAR should have intervened – and claimed Stockley Park officials Alex Chilowicz and Darren England chose not to because of an earlier incident when Marcos Senesi was booked for bringing down Ismaila Sarr.
VAR recommended a check for a red card – for the denial of an obvious goalscoring opportunity – but after Gillett went to the replay screen he had the courage of his convictions to stick with his original decision.
“I cannot be happy. I am upset and angry,” said Iraola. “To concede like this is difficult.
“Now we see the replays and we can complain. Bafode is marking Guehi very well with one arm, doesn’t hold him. Guehi pulls Bafode with two arms down.
“I think the VAR hasn’t intervened because (of) the previous play where he calls the referee and the referee doesn’t accept his correction. It’s the only explanation I can find.
“You could feel the 3-3 coming. But not in that way. If Mateta scores the last one and it’s 3-3 you have to accept it. But the penalty? No.”
Almost lost amid the chaos were two first-half goals from Bournemouth’s teenage forward Junior Kroupi on his full Premier League debut.
The 19-year-old was plucked from the French second division after scoring 22 goals in 30 games for Lorient last season, and he made the step-up look simple with a close-range header and a well-taken volley.
But Mateta converted two Daniel Munoz’s crosses in the space of five second-half minutes to make it 2-2.
Then came the crazy finish which made a mockery of Glasner’s pre-match suggestion that there would not be many goals in a tight match.
“It looks like I don’t know what I’m talking about,” he smiled.
“We played so well. I was one of our best attacking performances. How many goals we scored and how many we could have scored showed how good we were today.”
