Crystal Palace will take on Rayo Vallecano in the Europa Conference League final on Wednesday night. The Eagles would automatically qualify for the Europa League if they win the competition. This will also be Oliver Glasner’s final match in charge. Palace have lost Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi but still thrive.
Palace’s Long Road to the Final
Game 60 marks the final destination of the longest season in Crystal Palace’s history. Their European journey started so long ago that Eberechi Eze was still registered as a Palace player when they were edging past Fredrikstad in a play-off to secure their Conference League spot. While Eze has a shot at Champions League glory this weekend, on Wednesday it will be his former side who carry English hopes on the continent.
The route to a first European final has been a far from straightforward one. The feel-good factor from three successful trips to Wembley and a club-record 19-match unbeaten run unravelled in winter and edged towards self-destruction come January.
The FA Cup holders being dumped out of the competition by Macclesfield – a side ranked 117 places below them in the football pyramid – was just the start. Six days later, the club captain Marc Guehi was being sold and his manager Oliver Glasner confirmed his intention to follow him out of the door a few months later. Just over 24 hours later, a 2-1 defeat at Sunderland – a 10th successive match without a win – and an extraordinary post-match reaction from Glasner.
Glasner’s Criticism and Palace’s Resilience
The Austrian accused the club of “completely abandoning” his squad. His position felt near-untenable. Fans felt disrespected as Palace’s season continued to plummet. Relegation felt unlikely, but could not be disregarded. Yet Glasner continued and Palace crept into the knockout stage of the Conference League. The train just about remained on the track.
Palace defied their tag as one of the pre-tournament favourites with some inept and underwhelming performances in front of their home supporters and overseas. A 1-0 home defeat to lowly AEK Larnaca in October was bleak but not catastrophic. Palace did just enough to progress out of the group phase. Glasner admitted himself when speaking to Sky Sports News last week, “it didn’t feel at the beginning like a special journey”.
Turning Point at Selhurst Park
But then came one of the great nights under the lights at Selhurst Park. Nearly three months after the Macclesfield humiliation, the club united to deliver an evening to remember. The legendary Fiorentina put to the sword and all ill-feeling evaporated. The mission to deliver a European cup to sign off the Glasner era felt like the only thing that mattered.
“The closer we came to the final the more I felt it was speci