Crystal Palace signs a historic year that culminates with the conquest of Europe

Just a year ago, the Crystal Palace It was a club without titles. Today, twelve months later, the London team can boast of having experienced the most important calendar year of its entire existence. Three finals, three titles and a very emotional farewell from the bench Oliver Glasner.

It all started on May 17, 2025 at Wembley. That day, the Crystal Palace surprised the world and won its first title after 120 years of history. Defeating the Manchester City of Pep Guardiola in the final of the FA Cup thanks to a goal Eberechi Eze.

Far from conforming, the Palace He returned to Wembley just a few months later, on August 10, to play the Community Shield in front of Liverpool. The match ended 2-2 and the team Glasner won again, this time in the penalty shootout by 3-2, thus lifting the second trophy in just three months.

However, that success was accompanied by very hard blows for the project. Eberechi Ezethe great star of the team, headed to the Arsenal shortly after. Months later, in the winter market, he also left Marc Guéhicaptain and defensive leader, signed by the Manchester City. And yet, the Crystal Palace he continued competing.

The English team’s European season was marked by controversy even before it began. He Palace had qualified to compete in the Europa League thanks to the conquest of FA Cupbut UEFA ended up relegating it to the Conference League due to a timeshare conflict.

The reason was that the largest shareholder of the Crystal Palace also owns the Olympique Lyonnaisand UEFA regulations prevent two clubs with the same owner from participating in the same competition. As the French team had finished sixth in Ligue 1 and the Palace twelfth in the Premier League, was the Lyon who retained the place in the Europa League. He Nottingham Forest He then ascended to that competition and the Palace was displaced to the Conference.

Far from sinking, the team turned that disappointment into motivation. Last Wednesday, the Crystal Palace played the first European final in its history against Rayo Vallecano. And he won again. A goal of Mateta gave the English team the Conference League and completed an unrepeatable year for the London entity.

The tears of joy for winning the title turned into tears of sadness when Oliver Glasnerthe coach who led Crystal Palace to glory, he confirmed that it had been his last day on the club’s bench.

“Right now, I can’t even believe this was the last game. I made this decision and it is a chapter, a good chapter to read in the Crystal Palace book. Other chapters will follow,” he said excitedly.

All this in a much more difficult domestic season, where the Palace was fighting for permanencewhich they finally achieved by six points ahead of relegation.