Preview: Palace look toward Conference League semi-finals as they take big lead to Florence | OneFootball

Oliver Glasner’s side head to Italy with one foot in the Semi-Finals after a stellar display at Selhurst Park saw the Eagles take a three goal advantage into the second leg.

It has been a rollercoaster 10 months for Crystal Palace, after lifting the FA Cup, their first ever piece of silverware the Eagles were controversially kicked out of the Europa League due to issues relating to multi-club ownership rules.

They have since battered and grinded their way though the Conference League and sit on the verge of making even more history. A stunning performance and result at home to the Italians that ended in goals from Tyrick Mitchell, Ismaïla Sarr and a returning Jean-Philip Mateta to take the tie from a potentially nervy one to one that the Eagles can be very confident going into.

This comfortable victory hasn’t come as too much of a surprise considering how poor Fiorentina have been this season, the Italian side currently sit in 15th place which is actually a remarkable turn of fortune considering that at one point this season they sat rock-bottom.

Paolo Vanoli’s team have been seriously disappointing this season having qualified for Europe in the previous campaign. Three wins in their last five has softened the blow recently, but the side which includes former Premier League players Jack Harrison and David De Gea have had a season to forget.

As for Palace, a strong start to the season was massively de-railed by the news that captain Marc Guéhi, manager Oliver Glasner and lead striker Jean-Philip Mateta would all not be at the club come the start of next season. It’s news that’s likely to rock any side to it’s core and it certainly did for Palace.

The Eagles won just one of their next five games and slumped down to 14th in the table where they’ve remained up until this week. Now with any chance of retaining Europe all but off the cards, Palace can fully focus their efforts on the Conference League where they are looking increasingly like the favourites.

Another thing helping the Eagles in recent weeks has been a return to fitness for a large majority of their players. Despite this, forwards Evan Guessand who was brought in from Aston Villa, and Eddie Nketiah will both miss the tie and possibly the rest of the season. Other than this Glasner has his full squad to pick from.

As for Fiorentina, former Everton striker Moise Kean has been ruled out with a thigh issue and winger Dodô will also be missing from the line-up after he accumulated one too many yellow cards. Another former Premier League player who has been ruled out has been Tariq Lamptey who has been out for ages with a knee injury.

Thursday’s game could give Crystal Palace a real chance at attaining European glory whereas for Fiorentina it’s a chance for them to salvage something what has been a fairly ugly campaign overall.

The game will take place at 8pm (UK Time) and is live on TNT Sports.