Oliver Glasner has urged Crystal Palace to win the Conference League final so they can take up the Europa League place denied them this season after falling foul of Uefa's multi-club ownership rules. Last year's FA Cup winners were demoted to the Conference League after Uefa deemed John Textor had a controlling interest in both Palace and Lyon. The south London club will face Rayo Vallecano in Leipzig on Wednesday night in Glasner's final match in charge.
The Austrian, who also guided Palace to the Community Shield in August and won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022, confirmed in January he would leave at the end of the season. Glasner revealed on Tuesday that the players had held a farewell party for him on Monday, when he backed them to win a third trophy in 12 months and secure a Europa League spot next season.
“They had a nice farewell to me and then I said a few words,” the manager said. “I said for me that the best thing would be of course winning tomorrow because then the players would be in the Europa League next year and then we get what we should have got this year. I would like to watch on TV that they start with the desire and the confidence that we can win the Europa League as well.”
Palace are hopeful of appointing Andoni Iraola as Glasner's replacement, although the outgoing Bournemouth manager also has interest from Milan and Bayer Leverkusen. Pierre Sage, who led Lens to second place in Ligue 1, is a contender if Iraola turns them down. Palace captain Dean Henderson said losing Glasner would be “a huge miss”.
More than 15,000 Palace supporters are expected in Leipzig, where a replica trophy has been on display at the city's Marktplatz. Adam Wharton and Chris Richards trained on Tuesday but Glasner would not confirm whether either would start against Rayo Vallecano, who operate on a fifth of Palace's budget.
