After a 2-1 Premier League defeat to Sunderland in January, Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner said: “We couldn’t make a sub, we have no one on the bench. I feel that we’re being abandoned completely.”
It was the post-script of a series of comments from Glasner about Palace not strengthening their squad in the summer after securing European football. The climax had arrived a day earlier when the Austrian confirmed he would depart Selhurst Park in June amid a nine-match winless streak across competitions.
On Thursday, Glasner could count on a near-complete contingent of players. The 3-0 home win over Fiorentina in the first leg of the quarterfinals means Palace have one foot in the last four of the Conference League following a comprehensive team display.
Glasner’s comments three months ago divided opinion but Palace have averaged the second-least substitutions made in the Premier League this season at 3.4 per game. Only Everton (3.3) average fewer.
Injuries have been a prominent reason. Among their best players, only Dean Henderson, Maxence Lacroix, Chris Richards, Adam Wharton and Tyrick Mitchell have not missed league games due to injury (though Wharton and Henderson have missed one each with illness).
Ismaila Sarr was injured for four games and missed six more while away on African Cup of Nations Duty with Senegal. Daniel Munoz has missed nine, and Daichi Kamada ten.
There was the drama with Jean-Philippe Mateta, whose future with Palace was in serious jeopardy in January. A knee injury then ruled him out for over a month before he returned in March.
But on Thursday, all those players started, along with centre-back Jaydee Canvot and No 10 Evann Guessand, signed on loan from Aston Villa two weeks after Glasner spoke out. It made for Palace’s most complete performance of the season.
Canvot impressed in possession, carrying the ball forward with conviction, while Lacroix and Richards were hardly troubled by Fiorentina No 9 Roberto Piccoli. Munoz and Mitchell were astute defensively and marauding in attack. The Colombia international’s acrobatic pass for Mateta in the 31st minute led to Mitchell scoring after an excellent David de Gea save.
Fiorentina sitting deep meant Wharton had freedom to dictate proceedings and show Selhurst Park a world where Palace can have more of the ball (52 per cent possession) and not look unimaginative. That allowed Kamada, whose work-rate and defensive awareness was just as crucial to unlocking Wharton’s potential, to push further up the pitch and he supplied the pass for Munoz in the lead-up to Mitchell’s goal.
Ahead of the midfield duo, Guessand won the penalty that Mateta converted and the resounding “BOOM” that followed — for the first time since the France forward scored in a 1-1 draw with Fulham on New Year’s Day — set the tone for the remainder of the night. Sarr ran himself into the ground and created a big second-half chance for Mateta, who somehow contrived to head wide. The Senegal international then showed his striker how to do it with a clinical header for the third goal.
Sarr celebrates Palace’s third goal past De Gea (Photo: John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
The assist came from Kamada, now playing as the right-sided No 10 with substitute Yeremy Pino, who replaced Guessand, operating as a false 9 after Mateta’s substitution for Jefferson Lerma. It was a move that is one of Glasner’s signatures: overload one wing, immediately switch the play to the other and get a cross in for his forwards to attack.
Palace ended the match with 3.1 expected goals from 17 total shots, while limiting Fiorentina to 0.5 from eight shots. Great individual displays across the pitch came from collective adherence to the structure that has served them so well since Glasner’s arrival.
Of the substitutes, Lerma added solidity while Pino took players on at will and left them in their wake, staking a claim for a starting spot in the return leg next week. Will Hughes and Brennan Johnson made cameos too, with more good news in the offing.
Jorgen Strand Larsen, suspended for this game, will be available for next week’s second leg in Florence. Glasner hinted to the media after the win over Fiorentina that Strand Larsen could start their league game at home to Newcastle United to give Mateta a rest, a luxury he felt he did not have three months ago. Cheick Doucoure, who has not played for the first team since undergoing knee surgery in January 2025, featured thrice for the U21s in March and could return soon too.
A thin squad and a lengthy winless run led to Palace and Glasner opting to part ways this summer. The dismantling of Fiorentina, enabled by the depth Glasner originally desired, will ensure that impending divorce takes a sidestep to the prospect of four more memorable European nights.
“We are in crunch time,” Glasner said after the match, “And in crunch time, you need your best players and your full squad.”