Soccer
Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the only goal of the game as Crystal Palace’s first European fixture ended in a 1-0 victory over Fredrikstad in the first leg of their Conference League play-off at Selhurst Park.
The FA Cup winners were demoted from the Europa League by UEFA after it was deemed as of March 1 that American businessman John Textor had control or influence at both Palace and Lyon.
As such, Oliver Glasner’s men had to settle for a place in Europe’s third tier competition and it took them time to get going in Thursday’s contest against their Norwegian opponents, with Mateta registering their first shot on target after 20 minutes and Adam Wharton shooting straight at the goalkeeper not long after.
Mateta crashed an instinctive first-time effort against the right upright and Solomon Owusu had to head off the line when Ismaila Sarr’s header was parried by Martin Borsheim as the hosts bared their teeth before the break.
Justin Devenny headed wastefully wide shortly after the restart but Mateta finally made the breakthrough when he cleverly nodded Will Hughes’ volley past Borsheim.
Daniel Munoz was unfortunate to glance his header from Jefferson Lerma’s pin-point cross against the right upright, while Henrik Skogvold shot wide as the visitors almost stole a late leveller for next week’s return leg in Norway.
First part of the journey complete pic.twitter.com/k4GSqXa31m
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) August 21, 2025
Data Debrief: Mateta steps up for Eagles
Palace would have liked a bigger lead to take from this game but Mateta certainly did his part to try and make that happen.
The Eagles’ striker had three shots in total, two of which were on target and the other hit the post, with Marc Guehi and Borna Sosa the only players to register more.
Mateta also created two chances for his team-mates, with Guehi, Lerma and Hughes all creating three in an all-round effort in the absence of Eberechi Eze, who was absent from the squad as he looks set to complete a move to Arsenal.
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