The Eagles’ debut season in continental football – hence having never previously met a Spanish team competitively before – will culminate in Leipzig with the chance to take on opponents from an 11th different country on this European tour.
And, whilst Madrid-based Rayo mark our first competitive opponents, Palace have in fact played against Spanish teams on 17 different occasions in our history – winning nine of them (with four draws, and four defeats).
Let’s shed some light on those meetings, then…
With great thanks to Ian King and Tony Bowden.
1. April 1962: Palace 3-4 Real Madrid, Selhurst Park
We begin with probably our most famous meeting with a Spanish side – and probably most famous opposition club ever to visit Selhurst Park.
Palace hosted the mighty Real Madrid on 18th April 1962, to help showcase Selhurst’s newly installed floodlights.
The Real Madrid line-up to face Third Division Palace included all-time greats Alberto Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskás – and the latter dazzled under the lights.
But the scoreline was ultimately respectable – a 4-3 defeat – for then-Third Division Palace, whose supporters could scarcely believe they had witnessed the European champions in SE25.
