Palace beat Shakhtar to reach first European final

Crystal Palace swept past Shakhtar Donetsk 5-2 on aggregate to reach their first-ever European final on Thursday, giving manager Oliver Glasner the chance of a fairytale end to his golden reign.

The Eagles led 3-1 after the first leg of the UEFA Conference League semi-final and went further ahead in the first half at a crackling Selhurst Park, courtesy of an own goal from Pedro Henrique.

Eguinaldo levelled but Ismaila Sarr continued his rich vein of form by scoring his ninth goal of the competition early in the second period to make it 2-1 on the night.

Glasner’s men will face Rayo Vallecano in the final in Leipzig later this month after the Spanish side beat Strasbourg 2-0 on aggregate.

“It’s incredible, obviously for this football club, you see the connections between the players and supporters, it’s fantastic, it’s unbelievable,” Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson told TNT Sports.

“The manager came in, he made this team believe we can win any game. It’s been a difficult season obviously with the amount of games we’ve played, we’ve delivered another final, which is fantastic.”

The south London side took the lead in the second leg in the 25th minute after a surging attack, with Adam Wharton at the centre of the move.

Dmytro Riznyk palmed away Wharton’s stinging long-range shot but was helpless as Daniel Munoz’s follow-up from a tight angle flicked off Henrique and flew past him.

Eguinaldo made it 1-1 for the exiled Ukrainian team with a nonchalant finish into the top corner, leaving Henderson rooted to the spot.

Jean-Philippe Mateta crashed a shot against the post with an audacious scissor-kick shortly before interval as the home side continued to threaten.

The tie was effectively over soon after the restart when Sarr turned in Tyrick Mitchell’s cross from close range and Palace saw out the game comfortably.

History makers 

The final in Leipzig on May 27 will be Glasner’s final match in charge after he announced earlier this season that he would leave when his contract expires next month.

The 51-year-old Austrian, who arrived early in 2024, has overseen a golden period for Palace, guiding them to a 1-0 win over Manchester City in last season’s FA Cup final — the club’s first major trophy.

Palace then beat Liverpool on penalties in the season-opening Community Shield.

The Conference League, Europe’s third-tier competition, was only launched in 2021 and two of the four winners so far have been London clubs — West Ham in 2023 and Chelsea last season.

Palace are only in the competition because they were demoted from the Europa League before the start of the season after UEFA ruled they had breached multi-club ownership rules.

Winning the Conference League would guarantee entry into next season’s Europa League.

Glasner, who won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, was in sparkling form in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, saying his players wanted to taste the “honey” again after winning the FA Cup last year.

Now they have the chance of a sweetest end to their season.

Rayo down Strasbourg in Conference League to set up first European final

Rayo Vallecano are through to the first European final in their history after ending Strasbourg’s hopes with a 1-0 win in France in the second leg of their UEFA Conference League last-four tie on Thursday, as a 2-0 aggregate success set up a decider against Crystal Palace later this month.

Rayo travelled to France with a lead to defend after a solitary goal by Alemao last week in Madrid, and the Brazilian striker scored again late in the first half here as the visitors ran out deserving winners at the Stade de la Meinau.

The team from the sprawling Vallecas neighbourhood in the south of the Spanish capital have never really been a regular presence in La Liga and their only European campaign before this season came in 2000/01 when under Juande Ramos they got to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

Now they are just one more win away from a first major trophy, although they will be underdogs against Palace in the final in Leipzig.

Nevertheless, the team coached by Inigo Perez, a former assistant to Andoni Iraola before the latter moved to Bournemouth, were widely seen as the outsiders against Strasbourg and ultimately ran out worthy victors.

Strasbourg, who belong to the same BlueCo consortium which owns Chelsea, were targeting a first European trophy of their own and were hopeful of succeeding the London club as winners of the third-tier continental competition.

However the team coached by Gary O’Neil — who succeeded Liam Rosenior in the dugout in January when the latter moved to Stamford Bridge — were handicapped by injuries to their two main striking options.

Top scorer Joaquin Panichelli suffered a serious knee injury on international duty with Argentina in March and skipper Emmanuel Emegha — who will join Chelsea next season — was also ruled out.

Without them, they were forced to play with former Brighton attacking midfielder Julio Enciso as their attacking spearhead, but the Paraguayan is not a target man and also squandered a late penalty.

Rayo worked tirelessly to stop Strasbourg’s most influential players from dominating the game, especially Argentina midfielder Valentin Barco.

And the Spaniards carried the greater attacking threat, having numerous chances to open the scoring on the night before doing so in the 42nd minute.

When a ball was delivered into the home box, Florian Lejeune’s attempt was parried by Mike Penders, but the on-loan Chelsea goalkeeper could do nothing to keep out Alemao’s follow-up effort.

That left Strasbourg needing to score twice without reply just to force extra time, but they never really looked like finding the net once, at least until injury time.

That was when they were awarded a spot-kick for handball against Rayo captain Oscar Valentin, but Enciso’s effort was saved by Augusto Batalla.

The final whistle then sparked joyous celebrations in the corner of Rayo fans in the crowd of more than 31,000.

Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid fell short in the Champions League, but Rayo’s exploits mean the Spanish capital does have one European finalist this season.

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