What is Palace’s record like against Spanish clubs?

Club

25 May 2026

Wednesday night’s UEFA Conference League Final will – naturally, given the circumstances – mark Crystal Palace’s first-ever competitive meeting with a Spanish club, as Rayo Vallecano stand in the way of another piece of silverware.

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.

2. May 1969: Two wins, one draw

“Although the itinerary was nowhere near what it was scheduled to be originally,” the Croydon Advertiser wrote of Palace’s tour to Spain, ahead of the Glaziers’ first-ever season in the top-flight, “the Crystal Palace players arrived home from their Spanish tour on Sunday having had an enjoyable time.”

Bert Head’s side, fresh from winning promotion in dramatic circumstances the previous season, played three games, winning two and drawing one – but communication was not quite what it is today…

“Palace were due to have played Hercules, Alicante, as their first game, followed by Novelda, Cartagena and Real Murcia. There was also expected to be the possibility of a match against Real Madrid.

“So confusing was the situation that Palace officials at home announced that Palace had beaten Hercules 4-2 in the first game. Unfortunately, they had not heard that the opponents were Benidorm instead.”

The result was correct, and Benidorm the right opponent – although an earlier Advertiser column had made the same mistake, reporting the. Scorers as John Corrigan (two) – apparently, only on the trip because Tony Taylor had suffered appendicitis shortly beforehand – as well as Mel Blyth and Colin Taylor.

with Head’s side following it up with victory over Aruella – a 3-2 win – and an eventual 0-0 draw with Hercules.

In the case of the latter: “Palace were adamant that they won this one. One so obvious penalty was reduced to an outside-the-area free-kick that had even the Spanish spectators laughing…

“Although several [players] suggested that they would be staying on for a holiday in fact every player came back bar Mark Lazarus, who met his wife at the airport and stayed on.”

When in Alicante…

3. May 1970: Two wins, one draw

Clearly encouraged by his team’s avoidance of relegation the previous year, Head took Palace back to Spain the following year for what was later described by the Advertiser as “a rather hectic two-week tour.”

Along the way, Palace came up against – and drew with – then champions of Spain, Atletico Madrid, but not without some measure of dispute:

“The tour, though perhaps a bit more hectic in the travelling than first realised, proved quite successful and Mr Head refutes the suggestion that the ‘plum’ match against Athletico Madrid was against a below-strength side.”

Head was quoted as saying “they were perhaps short of a couple of first teamers, but remember that we were fielding a couple of new faces and had just come in from a very tiring journey – so it was balanced up.” Always eventful!

The tour had in fact begun with a 3-2 win over San Paulo – again described as “more of a Select XI – there were five San Paulo players on the field, plus some from Elche, a First Division Club, and some from Hercules, a Second Division side. We… were awarded the splendid Fisherman’s Cup.” You’ll never sing that.

What followed was that 1-1 draw with Athletico, in which Palace fell behind after three minutes, before Gerry Queen finished off a fine team move to claim a draw.

And three days later, Palace journeyed to Minorca – via Barcelona, Valencia and Palma – to meet Second Division Mahon, against whom Head’s side went a goal down in the first half, only for Queen to strike twice in the second-half to secure victory.

4. May 1980: Malaga 2-0 Palace

It was not for another decade that Palace would return to Spain – under the late Terry Venables – for the rare occasion of a post-season friendly, off the back of the club’s then-highest ever finish in the top-flight: 13th.

On this occasion, the Eagles fell to a 2-0 defeat, however.

5. August 1991: Sporting Gijon 2-2 Palace

Palace’s next record-setting team, that of the record-breaking 1990/91 team, were rewarded for their third-placed finish by manager Steve Coppell with a trip to Spain for the Costa Verdé tournament.

Taking place in August 1991, the Eagles – who had already played a 10-day, six-match tour of Scandinavia in July, and then faced AEK Athens in Greece – a 2-2 draw, with Andy Gray and Mark Bright on the scoresheet – first faced off against Levski of Bulgaria, winning 3-1… before intriguingly also winning a compulsory penalty shootout, 4-3.

Once again, the game had been played in interesting cuiircumstances, as “Palace arrived on Sunday to discover that their first game was on the Tuesday, and not the Monday as they thought.”

They then faced the host club and managed to salvage a 2-2 draw – an own-goal and Stan Collymore entertaining the crowd of 8,000 in attendance – but the two results did not do enough to secure Palace the accompanying trophy, after Gijon had beaten Levski 5-0 in their first game.

6. May 1994: One loss, one win

Fresh from winning promotion back to the Premier League under new manager Alan Smith, the Eagles played a pair of post-season friendlies in Spain which resulted in a 0-2 defeat to Marbella – but, two days later, a 1-0 win over Malaga.

Sadly, however, the following season they would suffer relegation once more, which saw Smith depart, and the likes of Richard Shaw, John Salako, Chris Armstrong and Gareth Southgate all sold.

7. July 2001: San Pedro 0-4 Palace

A convincing way to kickstart pre-season ahead of the 2001/02 First Division season, Palace won 4-0 against San Pedro – a late rearrangement of opponent – in the first of two games on a Spanish tour.

Jamie Smith, Stephen Thomson, Gregg Berhalter and Wayne Carlisle got the goals for a Palace side featuring the likes of Hayden Mullins, David Hopkin, Andrejs Rubins, Steve Kabba and Dougie Freedman, with Aki Riihilahti – not long having signed for Palace – coming off the bench for the second-half.

The Eagles would play a second friendly in Spain four days later, defeating Croatian side Cakovec 2-0, ahead of a series of domestic friendlies.

8. May 2002: Real Betis 2-0 Palace

A pre-season tournament played in Sevilla to promote the Olympic candidature of the city in 2012 – which, of course, eventually went to London – saw 16 different teams take part, with all the matches played in the city stadiums: Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera and Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.

Palace therefore found themselves amongst the company of the likes of Chievo, Eintracht Frankfurt, HJK Helsinki, Copenhagen FC, Malmo FF, Sevilla and, their city rivals, Real Betis.

A straight knockout tournament, Palace cleared their first hurdle with a 2-1 win over Malmo of Sweden – but went down 2-0 in the quarter-finals to a superior Betis side.

Sevilla went on to win the competition.

9. July 2003: Torremolinos 0-3 Palace

Another pre-season tour of Spain saw the Eagles fly to Malaga, Andalusia, for a training camp which culminated in a 3-0 victory over a nearby host club.

Dougie Freedman put Palace ahead after just five minutes from the penalty spot. Ben Watson doubled the lead, before Neil Shipperley added the third at the El Pozuelo Stadium.

The Eagles would, of course, go on to secure promotion that famous season.

10. August 2016: Palace 3-1 Valencia

Back on home turf, and just 10 years ago, Palace secured a comfortable win against Spanish giants Valencia a week away from the start of the Premier League season at a sun-bathed Selhurst.

Two goals from Connor Wickham and a penalty from Mile Jedinak helped Alan Pardew’s men pick up their seventh win in their eight pre-season encounters that summer, ahead of an opening-day meeting with West Bromwich Albion.

A win and a clean sheet against a traditional Spanish and European giant? Not bad.

11. December 2022: Palace 2-1 Real Valladolid

The rare occasion of a mid-season friendly – played, of course, to keep players fit during the 2022 FIFA World Cup mid-season break, at a freezing Selhurst Park – saw Palace once again emerge victorious against a Spanish side.

Palace dominated the first-half, but Valladolid took the lead against Patrick Vieira’s Eagles when Sergio Leon headed home from a set-piece delivery.

But Palace turned things around in the second-half through – who else? – that man Wilfried Zaha, who smashed home an equaliser across the ‘keeper after cutting in from the right, before converting a penalty after Michael Olise had been felled.

Match Highlights: Crystal Palace 2-1 Real Valladolid

12. July 2023: Palace 1-1 Sevilla (0-1p.)

Which brings us to our most recent meeting with a Spanish side, as part of our 2023/24 pre-season tour, when we faced Europa League winners Sevilla at Comerica Park in Detroit.

An eye-catching performance – in which the Eagles, truthfully, dominated in front of a crowd of 21,000, only to fall behind in the first-half through Ivan Rakitic’s impressive strike – was capped by Ebere Eze’s second-half moment of magic, as he slalomed between several players and finished to earn Palace a 1-1 draw.

Sevilla went down to 10 men in the second-half and Palace pushed for victory – only to then miss out on the Motor City Cup trophy to the relative novelty of a sudden death penalty shootout. Oh well…

… we’d settle for greater glory on Wednesday evening!

Match Action: Crystal Palace 1-1 Sevilla

Visit our Conference League Final Hub

2026 UEFA Conference League Final

Crystal Palace v Rayo Vallecano

Wednesday, 27th May
20:00 BST UK time / 21:00 CEST local time
Leipzig Stadium, Germany
Live audio commentary on Palace TV+
Visit our Conference League Final Hub

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