{"id":41955,"date":"2026-02-27T06:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=41955"},"modified":"2026-02-27T06:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T06:04:26","slug":"palace-battle-into-conference-league-last-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=41955","title":{"rendered":"Palace battle into Conference League last 16"},"content":{"rendered":"
Crystal Palace moved into the UEFA Conference League last 16 with a 2-0 win over Zrinjski Mostar, while Fiorentina survived a huge scare against Jagiellonia Bialystok on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Palace were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by Bosnian side Zrinjski in the first leg of their play-off tie last week.<\/p>\n

But Oliver Glasner’s team avoided an embarrassing exit thanks to goals from Maxence Lacroix and Evann Guessand in the play-off second leg at Selhurst Park.<\/p>\n

Playing their first European knock-out tie in the main stage of a tournament, Palace’s 3-1 aggregate victory eased the pressure on the under-fire Glasner.<\/p>\n

After a poor recent run in the Premier League and a stunning FA Cup exit against sixth-tier Macclesfield, Glasner, who has confirmed he will leave at the end of the season, had been subjected to chants for his sacking.<\/p>\n

Glasner earned some breathing space as Palace struck in the 36th minute when Adam Wharton’s free-kick picked out Lacroix and the defender headed home from close range.<\/p>\n

Guessand, who scored Palace’s winner against Wolves last weekend, drilled into the far corner from Brennan Johnson’s pass in stoppage time.<\/p>\n

“It means a lot. We didn’t have many easy weeks,” Glasner said.<\/p>\n

“I always said, since day number one, we’ve had a great relationship with the fans. Yes, they were a little bit critical but they can be critical when the results and performances are not that well.”<\/p>\n

Palace face German outfit Mainz or AEK Larnaca of Cyprus in the last 16.<\/p>\n

Fiorentina were on the verge of humiliation before earning a dramatic 5-4 aggregate victory over Polish team Jagiellonia.<\/p>\n

Paolo Vanoli’s side blew their 3-0 first leg lead as Bartosz Mazurek’s hat-trick for Jagiellonia forced extra time at the Artemio Franchi stadium.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alkmaar run riot<\/p>\n

Fiorentina finally regained control of the second leg of their play-off tie thanks to Nicolo Fagioli’s strike and Taras Romanchuk’s own goal.<\/p>\n

Jesus Imaz’s 118th-minute strike made Fiorentina sweat, but Jagiellonia’s Bernardo Vital was sent off for a second booking in the final seconds of a 4-2 win that wasn’t enough for the Poles.<\/p>\n

Currently languishing in 16th place in Serie A, Fiorentina’s main concern is fighting to avoid relegation.<\/p>\n

But they have reached two Conference League finals, losing to West Ham and Olympiakos, and one semi-final, in the last three editions.<\/p>\n

The Italian club, whose lone European trophy is the 1961 UEFA Cup, remain on course for another deep run.<\/p>\n

Dutch club AZ Alkmaar beat Armenian side Noah 4-0, overturning a 1-0 first leg deficit to secure a last 16 clash against Czech side Sparta Prague or Greek club AEK Athens.<\/p>\n

Lech Poznan of Poland won 1-0 against Finland’s KuPS, clinching a 3-0 aggregate success, and next face Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk or Spain’s Rayo Vallecano.<\/p>\n

Czech outfit Sigma Olomouc won 2-1 at Switzerland’s Lausanne-Sport, giving them a 3-2 aggregate victory and a last 16 showdown against Mainz or AEK Larnaca.<\/p>\n

Slovenian league leaders Celje defeated Kosovo’s FC Drita 3-2 to advance 6-4 on aggregate, with Sparta Prague or AEK Athens lying in wait in the last 16.<\/p>\n

Croatia club Rijeka beat Cypriot side Omonia Nicosia 3-1 to advance 4-1 on aggregate, setting up a meeting with Strasbourg or Rakow Czestochowa.<\/p>\n

Samsunspor routed North Macedonia’s Shkendija 4-0 to seal a 5-0 aggregate victory and will face Shakhtar Donetsk or Rayo Vallecano.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crystal Palace moved into the UEFA Conference League last 16 with a 2-0 win over Zrinjski Mostar, while Fiorentina survived a huge scare against Jagiellonia Bialystok on Thursday. Palace were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by Bosnian side Zrinjski in the first leg of their play-off tie last week. But Oliver Glasner’s team avoided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41955\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}