Crystal Palace claim historic European Cup win

In the early morning of August 22, the "Blue Eagles" defeated Fredrikstad in the first leg of the Conference League play-off.

Mateta was the hero for Crystal Palace.

This is Crystal Palace's first ever European victory. The London team previously participated in the 1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup but lost all three matches and did not score a goal.

The atmosphere at Palace was tense before kick-off as news of Eberechi Eze’s imminent move to Arsenal hit the team’s morale. Manager Oliver Glasner admitted Eze was “not ready to play” and replaced him with Justin Devenny in the starting line-up. However, the focus was on Mateta.

After a hard-fought but unlucky first half, including Mateta's own shot hitting the post, Palace finally had their moment of brilliance. In the 47th minute, the Frenchman rose high to head the ball past the goalkeeper. Mateta became the first player in Crystal Palace history to score in European competition.

In the final minutes, Daniel Munoz also hit the post, causing Palace to miss the chance to double the gap. However, the 1-0 victory was still enough to make the fans at Selhurst Park explode, because they were only 90 minutes away from a ticket to the European Cup in the second leg.

Speaking after the match, Mateta said: “I am very happy to be the first Palace player to score in a European Cup. We had difficulties because the opponent defended well, but the most important thing was to win. Now the whole team must keep the faith and continue to get good results in the second leg.”

As FA Cup winners, Crystal Palace qualified for the Europa League. However, due to a breach of UEFA's multi-club ownership rules, the club was demoted to the Conference League to make way for Nottingham.

Source: https://znews.vn/crystal-palace-gianh-chien-thang-lich-su-o-cup-chau-au-post1578963.html