Conference League 2025-26: Crystal Palace pass AEK Larnaca to reach the quarter-finals

Ismaila Sarr scored twice as Crystal Palace reached the quarter-finals of the 2025/26 UEFA Conference League with a 2-1 extra-time win over AEK Larnaca in Cyprus on Thursday, winning by the same scoreline on aggregate.

Palace will face two-time Conference League runners-up Fiorentina in the last eight after the Italian club won 2-1 at Rakow Czestochowa in Poland to complete a 4-2 aggregate success.

The Eagles have had a stop-start season, hit by the departure of centre-back Marc Guehi to Manchester City and the announcement that manager Oliver Glasner will leave at the end of the season.

But the English club remains in the race to add its first ever major trophy, the FA Cup won last season, in its first European campaign.

Palace have named a strong side for the second leg of the last 16 after two wins in four games in recent weeks allayed fears of relegation in the Premier League.

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The visitor took a 13th-minute lead when Sarr was played in behind by Adam Wharton’s deflected pass.

The Senegal winger kept his cool by rounding goalkeeper Zlatan Alomerovic, who had advanced from his area, and rolling the ball into an empty net.

Sarr thought he had doubled the lead shortly afterwards, but was given an offside flag.

However, Larnarca managed to stay level despite Palace’s sustained pressure, leveling the score 18 minutes into the second half through Enric Saborit’s header.

The Spanish left-back was then sent off in the 73rd minute after receiving a second yellow card for a foul on Sarr, but the hosts held on to force extra time.

The Cypriots could not keep Palace at bay with ten men until penalties, as Sarr fired home in the 99th minute after Daichi Kamada’s cutback following a short corner.

It was Palace who looked more likely to score the fourth goal of the match, when Sarr rattled the crossbar and Jorgen Strand Larsen headed against the post, with the Dane and Jean-Philippe Mateta somehow failing to put the rebound into the back of the net.

Larnaca defender Petros Ioannou was sent off late for a foul on Mateta, but Palace still had to survive a nervy late set-piece to avoid a shoot-out.

Strasbourg in quarters

Strasbourg needed a goal from Valentin Barco in the 71st minute to win 2-1 on aggregate against Croatia’s Rijeka and reach the quarter-finals of a major continental tournament for the first time since the 1979/80 European Cup.

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The away team leveled halfway through the first half through Toni Fruk.

Gary O’Neil’s Strasbourg next play Mainz, who defeated Czechs Sigma Olomouc 2-0 in Germany to win by the same score on aggregate.

AZ Alkmaar defeated Sparta Prague in the Czech capital 4-0, 6-1, as Troy Parrott scored his tenth Conference League goal of the season.

The Dutch club will next play Shakhtar Donetsk, while Rayo Vallecano will face AEK Athens for a place in the semi-finals.

Published on March 20, 2026