Game 60. The longest season in Crystal Palace’s history reaches its conclusion on Wednesday when they face Rayo Vallecano in the Europa Conference League final in Leipzig. It is a journey that began with a nervy playoff against Fredrikstad and lurched through a winter crisis so severe that manager Oliver Glasner accused the club of abandoning his squad. Now, with a European trophy and automatic Europa League qualification within reach, the Eagles aim to cap an unforgettable campaign with glory.
The feel-good factor from three trips to Wembley and a club-record 19-match unbeaten run unravelled spectacularly in the winter. In the space of a shocking week, the FA Cup holders were humiliated 2–1 by non-league Macclesfield, captain Marc Guehi was sold, and Glasner announced his intention to depart at the season’s end. A 2–1 defeat at Sunderland—their tenth straight winless outing—ignited a furious response from the Austrian, who claimed the club had “completely abandoned” his team. His position seemed untenable, and the season threatened to implode.
Yet, beneath the chaos, a stubborn resilience simmered. Palace crept through the Conference League group stage, doing just enough despite a dismal 1–0 home loss to AEK Larnaca. Glasner later conceded, “It didn’t feel at the beginning like a special journey.” The performances were often flat, the atmosphere tense, but the train somehow stayed on the track. Slowly, the squad—depleted by the mid-season sale of Eberechi Eze, who left for a shot at Champions League football—began to rediscover its identity. Key figures like Jean-Philippe Mateta, whose Deadline Day move to AC Milan collapsed, remained to anchor the revival.
The resurrection arrived on a raucous night at Selhurst Park. Fiorentina, a club steeped in European pedigree, were dismantled in a display that banished the winter gloom. The stadium erupted as Palace delivered a performance worthy of their pre-season billing. Glasner reflected, “The home game against Fiorentina was the first time I felt, it’s a special night.” From that moment, all the acrimony faded, and the focus narrowed onto one goal: delivering a European trophy to sign off the Glasner era.
The semi-final against Shakhtar Donetsk was a formality born of newfound belief. Palace swept aside the Ukrainian side to book their place in Leipzig, setting up a meeting with Rayo Vallecano. The squad’s togetherness—often cited by the manager as the season’s defining trait—had withstood the exits of Guehi and Eze, and even the collapsed Deadline Day move of Mateta, which could have derailed morale. Instead, it forged an unbreakable bond.
Wednesday’s final carries monumental stakes. A victory would not only etch Palace’s name onto a European trophy for the first time but also secure automatic entry into next season’s Europa League, bypassing domestic league qualification. For Glasner, it is a chance to depart on a triumphant note after a tenure of extremes—from Wembley jubilation to near-implosion, and now a shot at continental glory. The opponents, Rayo Vallecano, stand in the way, but the momentum and narrative weight lie with the Eagles.
The journey from Macclesfield to Leipzig is a testament to the squad’s character and Glasner’s ability to navigate a crisis that would have sunk most clubs. It has been a campaign of two halves: a winter of discontent and a spring of redemption. The Eagles have defied logic and expectation, and now stand 90 minutes from immortality. Whatever happens, this group of players has already etched a story that will be told for years, but the chance to make it a fairy-tale ending is within their grasp.
Based on reporting from Sky Sports.