What a season! Palace win the Conference League after Mateta's winner

This was an outsiders final. Teams like Fiorentina, Strasbourg or Shakhtar Donetsk may have been the favorites to make it to the finals, but in the end, the battle for the Conference League trophy was decided between the 15th placed Premier League’s Crystal Palace and 8th placed Rayo Vallecano. The Spanish team was a total surprise and were the ‘fairy-tale’ story, as the team from Real suburb made a sensation with the council-owned stadium and modest finances. But in the end, the quality of the London club and the experience of the Europa League winner Oliver Glasner (2022 Eintracht Frankfurt) proved to be too much. In a game with a few chances, Jean Philippe Mateta used his and it was enough: Crystal Palace – Rayo Vallecano 1-0.

It’s fair to say that Crystal Palace too had a fairy-tale story of their own. As recently as 2010, Crystal Palace were in the Championship and suffered a 10-point deduction for entering administration. They stayed up very late in that season. They've been a very dependable side in the Premier League but under Oliver Glasner, something special has happened over the course of the last two years. They've won the FA Cup, they've won the Community Shield and tonight, Glasner, who already announced that he will be leaving after this game, they won the Conference League too. Palace were supposed to play in the Europa League, but they did not receive a license for the competition due to UEFA regulations and ownership problems with their co-owner. Their place in the Europa League was taken by Nottingham Forest, who went on to reach the semifinals of the competition. But now, after this win, they are going to the Europa League next season.

It was not the best game in the world of football but London team was better and had two more excellent chances, while Rayo didn’t really produce anything and didn’t earn the right to lift the trophy. When Thomas Tuchel announced his World Cup list, more prolific names like Foden, Palmer or Gibbs-White were on the front pages, but Adam Wharton also didn’t receive a call-up. The Palace midfielder was the man of the match and produced an excellent display tonight. He is surely better than for example Kobbie Mainoo, but he is playing for Crystal Palace and not Manchester United.

The only important thing which happened during the first half happened in injury time. Wharton made a beautiful cross to the goal area and Mitchell somehow managed to sneak in between two Rayo defenders. Luckily for them, his cross from six meters was awful and went wide of the post, to the dismay of coach Glasner. Rayo had two half-chances which both went wide of the post, meaning that both teams failed to make a shot on the target during the first 45 minutes.

For that to happen, we had to wait until 50th minute of the game, but when it happened, it was 1-0 for the London team. Adam Wharton took a shot from distance and Rayo keeper Batalla bloked the shot, but the rebound fell straight to Mateta, who had no trouble scoring from close range. Former Newcastle United’s defender Florian Lejeune was not near the French striker for the first time this evening, and Mateta scored. Before that, he was invisible. Just five minutes later, Yeremy Pino blasted the ball from a free kick and hit the post twice, before offside was called. Rayo were on the ropes and Palace should have scored in the 58th minute, but Mateta’s shot was saved by Batalla this time. The Spanish team stabilized after that and De Frutos even had a half-chance, but it was nothing to worry about, as far as Palace was concerned. The London team calmly finished the game and their numerous fans at the Leipzig stadium went berserk when the final whistle was blown.

UEFA CONFERENCE LEAGUE FINAL

Crystal Palace - Rayo Vallecano 1-0 (0-0)

/Mateta 51/