Crystal Palace finally embraced their tag as favourites to lift the Conference League as they cruised to a 3-0 victory over Fiorentina at Selhurst Park.
In the first leg of their maiden European quarter-final, Palace laid down a marker in a competition where they have toiled for large parts to leave Fiorentina staring at the improbable.
For a competition that was only founded in 2021, it hardly feels fitting to call Fiorentina Conference League royalty. But the two-time finalists - the first team to reach 50 Conference League matches - are as worthy as any team of such a title. For Palace, this was the definition of a glamour tie as the ticker tape rained down in south east London.
Uninspiring in beating AEK Larnaca in the round of 16, Fiorentina posed a different proposition to the Cypriot minnows, having reached at least the semi-finals in each of their previous three Conference League campaigns.
But Palace rose to the occasion with goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta, Tyrick Mitchell and Ismaila Sarr.
The Selhurst Park faithful have given the impression that the Conference League has felt like a distraction, with anti-UEFA and, for a period, anti-Glasner chants providing the backdrop to some rather turgid performances in Europe.
Now, though, with their mid-winter slump behind them, Palace have found some stability and finally look like favourites to continue a trend of English dominance in the Conference League.
The Eagles weathered a positive start from Fiorentina to take the lead in controversial fashion as Mateta, starting his first game since January, netted from the penalty spot after Evan Guessand had been belatedly brought down by Dodo after skewing his shot wide.
Without the suspended Jorgen Strand Larsen, Mateta made his long-awaited comeback from injury and, back to full health, he began the task of rehabilitating his relationship with Palace’s supporters by scoring his first goal since New Year’s Day.
Palace had been steadily building momentum in the lead-up to Mateta’s opener, with Guessand a busy presence in and around the box, while Ismaila Sarr’s curled effort drew applause from Oliver Glasner.
It was, therefore, little surprise to see them double their lead shortly after as Tyrick Mitchell followed in from Mateta’s close-range effort to seize the advantage for a Palace side that has found it hard to make Selhurst Park a fortress this season.
Fiorentina, unbeaten in six heading into the game, have been a team of wild inconsistencies this season, and their intrepid first-half showing was always unlikely to amount to their influence on the tie.
They gave Dean Henderson plenty to think about after the break, with Giovanni Fabian’s shot pinging off the crossbar, before Albert Gudmundsson and Roberto Piccoli both tested the England shot-stopper. But Palace survived, regrouped, and changed the tide with the introduction of Yeremy Pino.
The Spanish midfielder’s neat switch gave Sarr the chance to cross for Mateta to head home at the back post before he floated into the area to lay on another guilt-edged chance for Jefferson Lerma.
Palace would ultimately not come to rue their errant finishing, though, as Sarr put the seal on a scintillating performance as he headed home Daichi Kamada’s cross as the clock ticked over into added time.
”Palace are on their way. How we’ll get there, I don’t know” sang the Palace supporters. Well, Glasner’s side may just have provided the blueprint.
