Palace suffer surprise defeat to AEK Larnaca | OneFootball

Crystal Palace suffered a surprise defeat at Selhurst Park to Cypriot side AEK Larnaca in their first home game in a major European tournament.

The Eagles are one of the favourites to go on and win the Europa Conference League but this will be a lesson in how they can't take the competition lightly.

AEK may be fifth in the Cypriot league but they offered stubborn resistance against a Palace team who failed to take their chances.

Jean-Philippe Mateta had the best chance for the home side in the first half after goalkeeper Zlatan Alomerovic intercepted a Daniel Muñoz cross only for the French forward to hit the crossbar.

Palace were to blame for the goal they conceded but it was a quite superb finish. The Premier League side were caught out playing out the back with Marcus Rohdén slipping a ball through for striker Riad Bajic to hammer an effort past Dean Henderson.

The England international goalkeeper may not have been in his best position after AEK reacted quickly to Palace losing the ball but even if he had been there was little he could do about the finish.

Mateta was once again guilty of missing a chance as Palace went in search of an equaliser as was substitute Eddie Nketiah but it was night of poor finishing from the hosts.

This should have been a relatively straight forward three points at home for Crystal Palace and they will now have extra pressure on them for upcoming games against tougher sides in this competition like AZ and Strasbourg.

For now, Oliver Glasner will need to get his team ready for two very tough trips when they face Arsenal away on Sunday in the league before going to Anfield for the next round of the Carabao Cup.