Crystal Palace 2-2 KuPS: Oliver Glasner's side forced into UEFA Conference League play-offs after shock draw
Report as Crystal Palace are forced to settle for UEFA Conference League play-offs after a draw with 10-men KuPS; Christantus Uche netted a sensational Trivela goal to give Palace an early lead; Oliver Glasner named a completely new 11, handing out three first-team debuts
Friday 19 December 2025 06:20, UK
A much-changed Crystal Palace were forced to settle for the UEFA Conference League knockout stage play-offs after they were held by a 10-man KuPS side in a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park.
Palace finished 10th place in the Conference League standings, meaning two additional games for Oliver Glasner's side in February after the Austrian boss had already complained about an "irresponsible" fixture schedule across the festive period.
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He'll have his own side to blame for their additional two matches in the new year, though as they threw away an early lead against the Finnish champions. Chrisantus Uche's first-half magic to find the back of the net with a Trivela was cancelled out in the second half.
With three minutes separating the two goals, Piotr Parzyszek and Ibrahim Cisse scored to stun Selhurst Park. Two nearly became three in 10 minutes as a second Parzyszek goal was struck off for offside after a VAR check.
Palace had to rely on a reckless challenge from Clinton Antwi that saw him instantly given his marching orders. Within three minutes of that decision, Justin Devenny headed home an equaliser. Glasner made 11 changes to his side with one eye on their trip to Leeds in under 48 hours.
He handed out three full debuts to an academy trio of George King, Dean Benamar and Joel Drakes-Thomas, but when they needed a goal, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Eddie Nketiah were introduced late on. Palace came close through Devenny once again, but he was denied by a big stop from KuPS' Johannes Kreidl.
Palace now prepare for their trip to Leeds on Saturday night, live on Sky, to kick off three games in eight days before the new year, including a Carabao Cup quarter-final at Arsenal on Tuesday, also live on Sky.
Palace face fixture pile-up!
Palace's failure to secure automatic Conference League round of 16 qualification means the Eagles face a frantic January and February schedule.
Glasner's side are still in Carabao Cup contention with a quarter-final at Arsenal next Tuesday, live on Sky Sports, and if they reach the semi-finals, it means they'll be competing in four competitions across two months...
- January 1: Fulham (H), Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm, live on Sky Sports
- January 4: Newcastle (A), Premier League, kick-off 3pm, live on Sky Sports
- January 7: Aston Villa (H), Premier League, kick-off 7.30pm, live on Sky Sports
- January 10: Macclesfield (A), FA Cup third round, kick-off 12.15pm
- w/c January 12: Potential Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, Chelsea (A)
- January 17: Sunderland (A), Premier League, kick-off 3pm
- January 25: Chelsea (A), Premier League, kick-off 2pm, live on Sky Sports
- February 1: Nottingham Forest (A), Premier League, kick-off 2pm, live on Sky Sports
- w/c February 2: Potential Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, Chelsea (H)
- February 8: Brighton (A), Premier League, kick-off 2pm, live on Sky Sports
- February 11: Burnley (H), Premier League, kick-off 7.30pm
- February 14/15: Potential FA Cup fourth round tie
- February 19: Conference League play-off round first leg (A)
- February 21: Wolves (H), Premier League, kick-off 3pm
- February 26: Conference League play-off round second leg (H)
- February 28: Man Utd (A), Premier League, kick-off 3pm
Glasner: I love our fixture schedule - it's what we want
Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner:
"I love it. Including the Carabao Cup semi-final? Hopefully. So it's easy to avoid these two games, just losing in five days, but that's not our mindset. We wrote this schedule and hopefully playing the Carabao final, playing the FA Cup final, playing the Conference League final and up to the Premier League having 65 games. That's what we want.
"It's February, there will be a few players back. I expect, so I hope the AFCON is not extended until March, so this will be really getting some trouble.
"So I expect Ismail Sarr back, I expect Daniel Munoz back in February, and I'm pretty sure we will have one or two signings in January.
"The club is really hard-working behind the scenes and getting these deals done and over the line.
"And all the players are fit and I can just tell you, today we had a few players who said, we have three games in five days, I can play every game in 90 minutes.
"I said, calm down. So it just shows the character of this team and the game today. We would have preferred to win, but everything else, we calculated this risk of maybe getting a draw. But everything else worked how we planned it. We could rest a few players. The only thing that I don't like is that Leeds now knows our starting line-up already."
