Eagles Take First Leg Victory Over Shakhtar To Edge Closer To First European Final

A thoroughly professional away performance by Palace ensures that they take a good advantage back to Selhurst Park for the second leg with Leipzig very much in sight.

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES: 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 19 Will HUGHES, 24 Borna SOSA, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 24 Chadi RIAD, 44 Walter BENITEZ, 55 Justin DEVENNY, 59 Rio CARDINES

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES: 4 MARLON, 16 Irakli AZAROVI, 18 Alaa GHRAM, 37 Lucas FERREIRA, 48 Denys TVARDOVSKYI, 49 Luca MEIRELLES, 68 Prosper OBAH

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“I’m very happy and very pleased with the performance. Credit to the players – they stuck to the plan and worked very hard, every single one in defence. We didn’t give them a lot.

I was really impressed with the reaction the team showed when conceding the equaliser, we had two or three big chances, missed them, and then it was a long throw-in and we took the lead again, and then waited for our situations.

It’s just the first step, we must perform even better at home to go to the final.

It’s an amazing group of people, of men, of characters. There is such a big spirit and great togetherness and we always believe in ourselves. There is no button we can press to switch it on, it is something we have created over months and years – that we know we can always come back and score a goal.”

JORGEN STRAND LARSEN

“I needed that [goal]. I was unlucky against Liverpool. I felt like the confidence had dropped but always keep going. It’s tough, two good players fighting for one spot, but to come on and score is amazing.

You could see after we scored early that they are a good team. We had to stay in, not lose our heads. We are 3-1 up but there is still a game to play. Important for me and the team to get a third.

We know the structure of the manager and the team. We had to accept they are a good team so we had to sit a bit deeper today but we did well on the counter. We are not going to over-celebrate. We are really happy with this, hopefully we are going to smash it on Thursday and go through.” 

MATCH STATISTICS

TEB VERDICT

It was difficult to know what to expect from this semi-final match up, but it took just 21 seconds to find out as the Eagles sent fans into raptures as Sarr opened the scoring with the fastest ever goal in the Conference League.

That set the tone for the fixture but the visitors could not add to the early opener and paid the price once again early in the second half as Shakhtar found an equaliser. That proved to be just a blip as Daichi Kamada found the net shortly after before Jorgen Strand Larsen ensured Palace take a two-goal lead into the second leg at Selhurst.

Whether there are many that expected such a result in this first leg against a side that have European experience, but the longer this competition has gone on has really suited this Palace side who have found it much more to their suiting playing teams that do not sit back.

Of course, the two-legged affair is far from a foregone conclusion as the Eagles must be as good if not better in the home leg to ensure passage into the final. Another ninety minutes to play, and play them well, we will be on our way to Leipzig.

Glasner and his players have given themselves a huge opportunity to carry on making history.

UPCOMING FIXTURES