Crystal Palace win Conference League after Mateta strike sinks Rayo Vallecano

After being denied their rightful place in this season’s Europa League, Crystal Palace finally have their revenge. In Oliver Glasner’s final match in charge, it was fitting that Jean-Philippe Mateta should score what turned out to be the winning goal after his January move to Milan was scuppered by a failed medical. It has been that kind of season.

Having rescued the south London club from the brink of extinction only 16 years ago, how Steve Parish must have relished this occasion. The Palace chair found himself sitting next to the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, for the biggest night in their history and he can now start planning for the Europa League campaign that was denied to them as last year’s FA Cup winners were adjudged to have broken European football’s governing body’s rules on multi-club ownership. As for Glasner, who performed a full-length dive on the pitch before going up to collect his winners’ medal, it ends any debate over whether he is the greatest manager in Palace’s history. Having been second best in the first half, he must take great credit for the way his side seized the initiative and can now ride off into the sunset with a third trophy in the space of just 12 months. Surely a top club will snap him up soon enough. The streets of Leipzig were a sea of red, blue and white in the daytime as fans from both sides enjoyed the sunshine, with many of the 15,000 Palace supporters in town replicating the march to the stadium that brought them good luck in last year’s FA Cup final against Manchester City. Thankfully there was no repeat of the unsavoury scenes on Tuesday when local police said 60 Palace fans classed as “known troublemakers” were ordered to leave the city centre following clashes with their Rayo counterparts. Both sets of supporters unveiled huge tifos before kick-off, with Palace’s referencing their long journey from being rescued from administration by Parish in 2010 to last season’s first major trophy. “Liquidation cancelled, FA Cup landed, Europa League boarding,” it read. Crystal Palace fans unveil a giant tifo before kick-off. There was better news that Adam Wharton was fit to start after limping off against Arsenal at the weekend, while Rayo’s influential Morocco winger Ilias Akhomach was one of only eight outfield players named on the bench along with the 38-year-old club legend Óscar Trejo in his last match. Given that it was the Spanish side’s first final in their 102-year history, Palace were in the unusual position of being favourites – their budget is more than the three other teams who reached the semi-finals of this competition.

Key points

• Having rescued the south London club from the brink of extinction only 16 years ago, how Steve Parish must have relished this occasion.
• The Palace chair found himself sitting next to the Uefa president, Aleksander Ceferin, for the biggest night in their history and he can now start planning for the Europa League campaign that was d…
• As for Glasner, who performed a full-length dive on the pitch before going up to collect his winners’ medal, it ends any debate over whether he is the greatest manager in Palace’s history.
• Having been second best in the first half, he must take great credit for the way his side seized the initiative and can now ride off into the sunset with a third trophy in the space of just 12 months.
• Surely a top club will snap him up soon enough.