Oliver Glasner has told Crystal Palace there can be no easing off against Everton on Sunday, even as Selhurst Park continues to glow from one of the greatest nights in the club’s history.
Palace return to Premier League duty this weekend with the noise of Europe still ringing around south London. Thursday’s win over Shakhtar Donetsk sent the Eagles into the UEFA Conference League final and gave the club one of those rare nights that will be retold for years, from fathers to sons, from the Holmesdale to every corner of the Palace map.
Yet for all the emotion of that achievement, Glasner has been clear that Sunday’s meeting with Everton is not to be treated as an afterthought. Palace’s season has suddenly become a balancing act between celebration, recovery and responsibility. The European dream is alive, but there is still Premier League work to be done.
The Palace manager’s message after the Shakhtar victory was deliberately human. He gave his players Friday off, partly because they had earned the chance to absorb what they had achieved, and partly because he had learned from the aftermath of the first leg. Palace trained the following day on that occasion and Glasner felt the group lacked sharpness afterwards. This time, he chose rest, release and reset.
But his words also carried a warning. Palace, he insisted, will not “wave the white flag against Everton”. That was the important line. The party may have been allowed, but the season has not paused. The Eagles are expected back in to prepare properly for David Moyes’ side, with Glasner determined to protect the standards that have carried them this far.
For a club that has lived so much of its modern Premier League life in survival mode, this is new territory. Palace are no longer merely protecting their status. They are preparing for a European final, managing a stretched fixture list and trying to keep league momentum alive while the biggest night in their continental history sits on the horizon.
The scale of the achievement should not be softened. Palace’s win over Shakhtar was not just a famous result, but a mature European performance. They showed discipline, bite and composure, managing the pressure of the occasion while finding the moments that mattered. Ismaïla Sarr again underlined his value, while the wide players and wing-backs gave Palace the energy and width that have become such an important part of Glasner’s football.
Sarr’s form has become one of the great stories of Palace’s European run. He has been decisive, sharp and increasingly ruthless in the final third, giving Glasner the kind of cutting edge every cup run needs. His timing could hardly be better. At the moment when Palace needed players to step forward, Sarr has not so much stepped as burst through the door.
Glasner’s Palace are not drifting through Europe on romance alone. Their success has been built on structure, speed and bite. They can defend with numbers, spring forward quickly, use their wing-backs aggressively and ask awkward questions through Sarr, Jean-Philippe Mateta and the runners from midfield. There is emotion in this run, of course there is, but there is method too. Palace have looked like a side that knows exactly what it is trying to be.
Sunday’s game against Everton now becomes a test of whether that method can survive the short turnaround.
The first piece of good news for Glasner is that Palace appear to have come through the Shakhtar game without fresh injury concerns. That matters, because the demands are now mental as much as physical. Palace have had to move from Europe to the Premier League and back again, and the risk is not simply tired legs. It is the emotional drop that can follow a night of such intensity.
Glasner will know that better than anyone. He has to judge how many players can go again, who needs protecting and who might benefit from staying in rhythm. Rotation is possible, perhaps even likely in places, but Palace cannot afford to let the afternoon become a soft landing. Everton will not come to admire the bunting.
David Moyes’ side arrive with signs of life in their attacking game. Their recent performance against Manchester City showed the threat they can carry when Jordan Pickford’s distribution finds runners early and when their quicker players are allowed to attack space. Everton have pace, physicality and enough directness to make Palace defend the areas behind their back line.
But this fixture should still be seen through Palace eyes. For Glasner, Everton are not simply the next opponent. They are the first test of Palace’s ability to live with their new status. Can they move from a historic European night back into the practical grind of the Premier League without losing intensity? Can they control the match emotionally as well as tactically? Can Selhurst Park turn celebration into pressure rather than distraction?
The crowd will have a role. Sunday’s atmosphere is unlikely to be normal. Palace supporters will arrive still carrying the sound of Thursday night in their bones. There will be songs about Europe, songs about Leipzig, songs about Sarr, songs about Glasner and probably a sense that this group has already stepped into club folklore. But the manager will want all of that energy directed onto the pitch, not floating above it.
Palace’s greatest danger may be the first half-hour. If the game feels too gentle, Everton will settle. If Palace allow the afternoon to become loose, Moyes’ side have the tools to make it uncomfortable. But if the Eagles begin with the aggression and clarity that have marked their best European performances, they can make the game feel like another extension of this remarkable run.
The key may be in the wide areas. Daniel Muñoz and Tyrick Mitchell have been vital to how Palace play under Glasner, offering thrust, width and the ability to turn defensive shape into attacking threat.Palace Everton
