Glassner claims Palace’s win in Poland is « just the start » of the Eagles Eye Conference League final

Crystal Palace take a giant step towards Conference League final with a 3-1 victory Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of their semi-final in Krakow, with Ismaila Sarr’s goal after just 21 seconds becoming the fastest in the competition’s history.

Sarr pounced on Jean-Philippe Mateta’s knockdown to fire into the net almost before the game had started, sending Palace’s traveling support into raptures at the Henrik Reimann Municipal Stadium.

Oleh Occheretko equalized two minutes into the second half, but Daichi Kamada restored the lead after Chris Richards’ long-range throw-in in the 58th minute, before substitute Jørgen Strand Larsen rounded off a convincing winner on the counter-attack six minutes from time.

Palace take a two-goal lead back to south London for the second leg at Selhurst Park next Thursday, with a place in the final in Leipzig on May 27 at stake.

« I’m very happy and very pleased with the performance, » manager Oliver Glassner told TNT Sports. « Credit to the players – they stuck to the plan and worked very hard, every single one of them defensively. We didn’t give them much. They were a big threat from set pieces. We conceded here, but I think we were the same when we went forward. When we were in attack, it was always very threatening.

« I was really impressed with the reaction the team showed when we conceded the equalizer because all of a sudden we had two or three big chances, we missed them and then it was a long goal and we took the lead again and then we waited for our situations. Huge shots from the bench.

« Overall we are very happy with the performance, but this is only the first step. I believe we have to perform even better at home to go to the final. »

« It’s an amazing group of people, of men, of character. There’s so much spirit and so much togetherness and we always believe in ourselves. There’s no button we can push to turn it on, it’s something we’ve built up over months and years – that we know we can always come back and score. »

Strand Larsen broke his duck

The moment that sealed the victory came from Strand Larsen, who has struggled to find his feet in recent weeks, coming off the bench to put the tie firmly in Palace’s hands.

« I needed that. I was unlucky against Liverpool – I felt the confidence was down, but I always keep going. It’s difficult, two good players (him and Mateta) fighting for a place, but to come on and score is amazing.

« You could see after we scored early that they’re a good team. We had to stay, not lose our heads. We’re 3-1 up but there’s still a game to play. It’s important for me and the team to get a third.

« We know the structure of the manager and the team. We had to accept that they are a good team so we had to sit a bit deeper today but we did well on the counter-attack – and if we had been even better we could have scored more.

« We’re not going to celebrate too much. We’re really happy with it, hopefully we’ll break it on Thursday and go through. »