Oliver Glasner hails ‘huge achievement’ as Palace progress in Conference League | OneFootball

Oliver Glasner hailed Crystal Palace’s latest European milestone after Ismaila Sarr’s extra-time winner at nine-man AEK Larnaca booked a Conference League quarter-final against Fiorentina.

Sarr fired Palace, who had drawn the first leg 0-0, into a 13th-minute lead in Cyprus, but defender Enric Saborit levelled in the 63rd minute, only to be sent off 10 minutes later after being shown a second yellow card.

Sarr put the Eagles 2-1 ahead nine minutes into extra time before twice going close to a hat-trick, clipping the crossbar on both occasions, the second time after Larnaca had been reduced to nine men following Petros Ioannou’s dismissal.

“It’s a huge achievement,” Glasner said on TNT Sports. “We are looking forward and it is now to really make the best with the three weeks, because our next competitive game is against Fiorentina at Selhurst Park.

“We will have a few days off and then many of our players go to their national team and then we will prepare.

“We will play a friendly to stay in the rhythm. It’s good. I expect (forward) Eddie Nketiah back, so everybody will help us, because then it will be a very tight schedule until the end of the season, and hopefully our European journey continues.”

Sarr joined Palace from Marseille in August 2024 in a deal reportedly worth £12.6 million. He has more than justified his purchase, making a habit of scoring when Palace need him the most.

It was Sarr’s second-half brace against Villa that helped lift the south Londoners into last season’s FA Cup final at Wembley, where the Eagles secured their first major trophy and booked themselves into proper European competition for the first time.

His equaliser also forced a penalty shootout in their Community Shield victory over Liverpool, also contributing one of the successful spot-kicks. Thursday night’s winner was his fifth Conference League goal in a campaign where they have been hard to come by.

Palace midfielder Adam Wharton told TNT: “(Sarr) has been doing well in the Premier League as well. He’s been scoring a lot of goals, getting a lot of assists, and he’s so quick.

“Especially against these teams, if you get that little bit of space in behind because they are so compact, it works wonders having him, so we’re really happy to have him.”

Jorgen Strand Larsen is set to miss the quarter-final opening leg through suspension after he was booked late in the second half at Larnaca, adding to the yellow cards he was shown in each leg of Palace’s knockout phase play-off with Zrinjski Mostar.

The three-week break until Palace restart their European campaign will no doubt come as welcome news to Glasner and Jean-Philippe Mateta, who is still working his way back to full match fitness after returning from a six-week knee injury-related absence as a late substitute in the opening leg against Larnaca.

On Thursday night the France striker – who will not join his national team for the upcoming window – shared the pitch with the Norwegian for the first time after he came on with seven minutes remaining in the second half.