Oliver Glasner spent the week arguing that Crystal Palace’s fixture congestion has made the FA Cup holders victims of their own success. So he was mightily relieved with the ease that his side dispatched AZ as an outstanding performance from Ismaïla Sarr reignited their Conference League campaign.
The Senegal forward scored twice after Maxence Lacroix had given Palace the lead, even if Jean-Philppe Mateta endured one of his off-nights in front of goal as he missed an early penalty and several other gilt-edged chances. But with a testing trip to face Strasbourg – who are owned by the same company as Chelsea and rated with Palace as one of the favourites to win this competition – in their next match, only victory here would have sufficed and they showed a growing maturity given their inexperience at this level to get past youthful but talented opponents.
“We looked surprised with AZ’s intensity at the start but then we started to dominate with our physicality,” said Glasner, whose side are ninth in the standings after three matches. “Winning is the most important thing in sport because you get so much confidence from it.”
After being demoted to this competition from the Europa League by Uefa in the summer, Palace’s sense of injustice has been fuelled by this week’s fiasco over the scheduling of their Carabao Cup quarter-final with Arsenal. The potential implications of having to play five matches in the space of 11 days in December due to that and their European commitments made this game even more important after a surprise home defeat to Cypriot side Larnaca last time out. With that in mind, Glasner made only one change from Palace’s win over Brentford on Saturday as Will Hughes replaced Daichi Kamada in midfield, while Adam Wharton was back on the bench after illness.
