Oliver Glasner has prepared his players thoroughly to face Rayo Vallecano in the first European final for both clubs – but the Austrian hopes they will be in a playful mood for his last game in charge.
A 2021/22 Europa League winner with Eintracht Frankfurt, Glasner could win his second trophy with the Eagles following their FA Cup triumph last season as the team who came 15th in the Premier League take on the eighth-placed finishers in Spain.
“We’ve shown many, many games from La Liga and the Conference League when they’ve played against a back three, against a back four and when they had more or less possession,” Glasner said of the Vallecano footage he has watched with his squad, speaking after touching down in Leipzig on Tuesday.
“I hope nobody goes into a bar but I’m pretty sure they won’t. They can sleep for quite long [on Wednesday] and then we’ll play head tennis.
“It’s a long day and the 30 minutes when the players play head tennis is one of the best moments for me, because I see kids playing football and they have so much fun.
“Everybody wants to win but they are laughing and joking and I’m sitting there watching with a big smile. They always get a good feeling.
“I hope they’re loving [the day] and joking, not calm and introverted because they are nervous. They should be how they are and who they are, and then they have the best chance of a good performance.”
Rayo Vallecano won 2-1 at Alaves on Saturday to extend their unbeaten run to nine matches in all competitions, with 38-year-old Inigo Perez hoping to join Aston Villa’s Unai Emery, Barcelona’s Pere Romeu and Paris Saint-Germain’s Luis Enrique or Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta among Spanish coaches to have won major European club trophies this month.
“They’re the toughest team in the competition and favourites to win the title,” sporting director David Cobeno told AS of Palace.
“It would have been difficult to knock them out over two legs, but anything can happen in a final. We can win it – and we’re going for it.
“There have been some very good, historic Rayo teams, but this one is achieving things that no other team has ever achieved in the club’s history.
“Staying in the top flight for six consecutive years is no mean feat for a team like ours, and reaching the final of a European competition will be difficult to repeat.
“I believe this is indeed the best Rayo team in history.”
Crystal Palace v Rayo Vallecano team news
Palace centre-back Chris Richards is a doubt after tearing two ligaments in his ankle, with Glasner calling the injury “stable but quite swollen”.
Adam Wharton made a brief cameo appearance in the 2-1 home defeat to Arsenal on Sunday before making way with an ankle issue that Glasner hopes the influential midfielder will recover from.
Ilias Akhomach is a doubt for Rayo Vallecano with a problem the on-loan Villarreal winger sustained during the warm-up before their semi-final second leg against Strasbourg.
Alvaro Garcia, who has three goals in this season’s competition, has returned from injury. The winger is the club’s second-top scorer in the Conference League behind Alemao, who has netted four times.
