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20 hours ago
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70 mins: Well, Vallecano have made a couple more attacking changes. They have to roll the dice in the final 20 minutes or so here. Espino and Camello have come onto the flanks.
68 mins: You wonder if Iñigo Pérez has the resources available to him to change this game. Oliver Glasner is yet to make a substitution but there is still serious strength on the Palace bench should he need it.
De Frutos darts down the Rayo left but Lacroix covers well.
67 mins: Palace are in their ‘flow state’ now, as the Gen Z kids say.
Vallecano, who were so solid and competitive in the first half, have not laid a glove on the Premier League team since half-time.
65 mins: Some smart footwork from Mitchell, drifting into a more central area, releases Sarr, who tries to catch out Batalla at his near post. Into the side netting from the Senegalese forward.
64 mins: Pedro Diaz and Nobel Mendy are the men Rayo have brought on, by the way. Ciss will push into midfield with Mendy at centre-back. Can the Spanish team find a way back into this?
63 mins: Palace are certainly alive, Dave, but it’s only 1-0 for all their domination of this second half so far. Glasner will be desperate for a second to really assert control.
Unai López and Oscar Valentin, the two central midfielders who started the game for Vallecano, are being removed.
“Hi Dominic,” says Dave Esterby. “I was just about to say, if this is the best Palace can offer after sleepwalking their way through their last few Premier League games – particularly at Bournemouth – then [they] don’t deserve a thing from tonight.
“Then Mateta scores and they’re alive. So, I’ll just shut up...”
60 mins: Ratju has stayed down after a 50-50 with Mitchell leaves the Rayo Vallecano player worse off. Perhaps his team need this delay and a period of calm to quell the Crystal Palace storm.
58 mins: It has been a totally different game in the second half to the tepid fare we were served in the opening 45 minutes.
What did Glasner say in his final ever half-time team talk? Whatever it was, it’s inspired his troops and then some!
57 mins: Palace are rampant here, as Batalla sprawls to deny Mateta another golden opportunity. It could be 3-0… but somehow Rayo Vallecano are keeping the floodgates closed – JUST.
56 mins: Pino and Wharton stood over the free-kick. Can Palace test Batalla again?
Oh my goodness, the ball has hit the post multiple times! Pino’s effort smacked one upright and then the other after going across the goal… then the melee to follow up saw the ball hit the woodwork again. Madness.
54 mins: The Palace fans are having a party in the stands, as Sarr – who has taken a couple of knocks in the past minute or two – is fouled. This could be a good free-kick opportunity for someone …
It really was instinctive stuff from Mateta to score the rebound, with Batalla unable to parry Wharton’s fierce left-footed shot to safety.
Palace had started the second half with more purpose, but the goal came from nowhere really. And how apt that it comes from Mateta, who nearly left the club for Milan in January – and would have done if not for a failed medical.
GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-0 Rayo Vallecano (Mateta, 51)
MATETA SCORES FOR PALACE!
It came from Adam Wharton’s shot and it was a poacher’s finish from the Frenchman, to cue bedlam in the stands.
49 mins: Another yellow card is shown to a Vallecano player, with Unai López booked for tripping Kamada.
A Palace passing sequence ends with Sarr slipping as he tried to drop deep to collect the ball.
48 mins: Palace really haven’t had much joy from Muñoz’s long throws so far. Is there a Plan B?
47 mins: Palace play their way out of trouble after Muñoz’s loose pass … good stuff from Mitchell to move the ball on quickly, almost finding Mateta. A sliding Lejeune gets it away for Rayo for a Palace throw-in.
We’re under way for the second half in Leipzig.
Should Glasner make any changes at the break? I’m not sure Wharton is 100% fit, but is it worth risking him in the hope he produces a pass like the one for Mitchell in first half stoppage time? There’s also Brennan Johnson on the bench, who has form in bagging the winner in a European final.
The players are about to re-emerge.
And now here’s a very good email summing up that dour first half, courtesy of Kári Tulinius
On the one hand, this is a match that has lived up to the promise of a contest between the eighth best side in Spain, and the 15th best in England. On the other, the atmosphere is as tense as town in an old western as a pair of gunslingers take up position at two ends of a street. Neither set of players have flinched yet, or tried to draw their pistols.
Who will blink first in the second half? That’s the intriguing question.
I received this excellent email from Daniel Storey during the first half re: the rise and rise of Crystal Palace:
I wonder how many fans that were in the away at Edgeley Park that famous afternoon in 2001 when Dougie Freeman saved the club from an unknown future and the nightmare drop to Division 2 (now League 1), are also in Leipzig this evening? Hopefully all of them as that really was a siding doors moment in the Eagles’ history.
I bet if you told those Palace in Stockport that afternoon that would be playing in a European final after winning an FA Cup final within the next 25 years, they would have looked at you in disbelief and a questioned your sanity.
Stockport County fans: do not despair at your League One playoff final agony, perhaps you will be in a European final in 2050!
HT: Crystal Palace 0-0 Rayo Vallecano
A half of few chances was defined by the one missed by Crystal Palace’s left wing-back right at the end of it. Tyrick Mitchell and the Eagles will hope they get more sight of goal in the second half.
Vallecano have been good value, in fairness, very tidy in possession and largely solid in defence. There really hasn’t been much to separate the teams. Plenty of thinking for both managers to do during the break.
Before that, I rated the Alemão chance as the best opportunity of the game… but Mitchell will surely be ruminating on that when the teams head in for half-time.
The camera pans to a few Palace fans in the ground with hands over faces. Yikes.
45 mins+2: Oh my, it should be 1-0 Palace!
It all suddenly got quite stretched and Palace have gone agonisingly close to clinching the lead, with Tyrick Mitchell heading wide from point-blank range. What a cross from Wharton it was to pick out the wing-back. Glasner was almost running off to celebrate.
We’ll have four minutes added on to the end of this first half. As it stands, it will not live too long in the memory.
It’s not quite been Tottenham v Manchester United in the Europa League final a year ago, but it’s not been much better.
44 mins: The referee hasn’t helped, by the way, doing little to prevent the stop-start nature of this game. Everything has been a foul.
A scrappy Palace attack ends with Kamada having a pot-shot but the officials spotted an infringement in the buildup. It looked like handball from Muñoz.
41 mins: The half is petering out a bit now.
But there will likely be a fair amount of added time. Wharton goes into the book for a late one on Palazon, for which he can have few complaints.
40 mins: Unai López sends a shot just wide of the post, quite an elegant effort actually with the side of his right foot, opening up his body. Palace have looked a bit sloppy since the restart.
We’re now back under way. Hopefully everyone involved in the stands is OK.
38 mins: A number of stewards are now attending what we’re being told is a medical emergency in the stadium. The Rayo Vallecano players appear to be saying they don’t want to restart the game, despite the referee’s instructions. A bit of confusion here.
Another delay now… it looks like someone in the stands may need urgent attention.
35 mins: Wharton has been barged to the ground twice in the past minute or two and on neither occasion did he get the decision from referee Maurizio Mariani. The English midfielder is starting to vent his frustration to the officials.
Vallecano definitely have a plan to get physical with Wharton, trying to unsettle him.
33 mins: Sarr gets a bit of attention from the physios but it looks like he’ll be fine.
Palace have to start creating a bit more, as Glasner uses this delay to communicate a message or two to his men.
32 mins: Riad steps in at the apt moment – once again – but Palace are having trouble working that opportunity in the final third. Mateta really isn’t getting much space, with Lejeune and Ciss staying ultra-tight to the Eagles’ centre-forward.
Sarr is down with an apparent injury. This doesn’t look great.
30 mins: In fact, whatever the result tonight I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two of these Vallecano players in the Premier League at some point in the near future.
Palace having to do a bit of defending at present.
28 mins: Yeah, this isn’t proving the straightforward Crystal Palace victory that so many people predicted … it’s tight. Very tight.
27 mins: Nice stuff from Kamada, dovetailing with Wharton and then his wing-backs, to keep things ticking for Palace, looking to pick the lock in the Vallecano defence.
The cross from the right flank ends up hitting Mitchell and bouncing harmlessly wide.
25 mins: Chance for Alemão! Not sure he was ready for that cross from Chavarria from the left, but he did react well enough and directed a cushioned volley just past Dean Henderson’s post. That’s the best chance of the game so far.
