It isn't every matchday your team takes part in a competition for the very first time.
But that’s the feeling that Palace fans will enjoy on Thursday evening (20:00 BST) against Lech Poznań, our first-ever match in the UEFA Europa League – hot off the heels of our historic victory in the Conference League Final back in May.
Tickets for Thursday's match – a chance to witness Crystal Palace history for yourself – remain available for the game.
Ahead of the match, then, let’s take a look at some of Palace’s previous competition debuts…
When it comes to declaring our first-ever match, definition comes into play, so to clarify early: we'll recount the story of the first-ever football match played by the amateur Crystal Palace Club, prior to us turning professional in 1905.
It was at 2.30pm on the afternoon of Saturday, 15th March, 1862, when a momentous footballing event took place on a football pitch... in Leytonstone, Essex.
It was momentous because it was the first reported football match of the Crystal Palace Club – the club’s amateur identity – against a team called The Forest Club.
It was also the first reported match between two clubs who, the following year, would become founder members of the new Football Association, and lay down the first rules of what we now call Association Football.
The match was played 15-a-side, and lasted an astonishing two-and-a-half hours, with The Forest Club – with details understandably lacking – reputedly 1-0 winners after the mammoth fixture (find out more here).
Nonetheless, it was a start – our start.
Now heading into our professional era, which was kickstarted ahead of 1905/06, our first game by definition was in the United League – a midweek competition set up to provide Southern clubs with additional matches, which ultimately became defunct in 1909 – and saw us defeat New Brompton (who later morphed into Gillingham), 3-0.
But again, a more comparable competition for first-ever 'league' match would be our first game in the more prestigious Southern League, which is where we’ll focus our attentions.
Indeed, our first game arrived just 24 hours after that win over New Brompton, as Palace... fell to Southampton Reserves, 4-3!
That Palace played such opponents can largely be attributed to club politics of the time – as historian Peter Manning here explains regarding our initial placement in the Second Division – but with Palace not able to gain election to the Southern League, then a competitor to the Football League, the club were forced to begin in the Second Division, which largely comprised reserve teams.
Nevertheless, following that initial shock defeat, Palace then went on to suffer no further losses for the rest of the season, duly gaining promotion to the First Division anyhow – quite the turnaround!
We would spend a total of 15 years in the Southern League before joining the expanded Football League in 1920/21 – although it admittedly would take another 64 years before we played our…
As a newly promoted side, a gentle introduction to the top-flight is always a bonus. Less welcoming – although altogether more exciting – is facing some of Europe’s best on the opening day.
But that’s exactly what Palace encountered on 9th August 1969, as Manchester United – with some of the greatest stars of the era – arrived in South London to take on the First Division’s newboys.
Just months earlier, Bert Head had taken the Glaziers to the promised land for the first time in the club’s 100-year-plus existence. Victory in the penultimate game of the season, in front of more than 36,000 supporters at Selhurst Park, had sealed promotion.
Just 10 years prior, Palace had been a fourth-division club. Now they were preparing to face the best.
As is so often the case in Palace’s history, they refused to let the underdogs tag get the better of them. Mel Blyth put the hosts ahead after just 11 minutes, forever etching his name into history as the club’s first top-flight goalscorer.
Bobby Charlton equalised soon after, but Palace went ahead again just before half-time via Gerry Queen.
Unfortunately holding on for a famous victory proved too much, with Willie Morgan’s second-half equaliser meaning the points were shared that day – a 2-2 draw which has gone down in club folklore.
To some supporters it seems like only yesterday that the Premiership – as it was then known – got underway.
For Palace, it did so on the opening day of 1992/93, with the Eagles one of 22 founding members in the competition’s inaugural season.
Blackburn Rovers were the visitors to Selhurst Park on Saturday, 15th August ’92 – and Mark Bright was, of course, the man to get Palace off the mark in the competition, with what ended up being his 113th and final goal for the club.
After a cagey start to the game from both sides, Bright struck after 37 minutes – Palace's first-ever Premier League goal. “It was a header at the far post,” he would later recall. “I think [Richard] Shaw came inside and crossed, and I just headed it down. Hand in the air, back to the halfway line and start again.”
The match ended in a 3-3 thriller as Stuart Ripley scored for Blackburn; Gareth Southgate restored Palace’s lead; and then a young Alan Shearer struck a brace for the visitors.
Simon Osborn answered for Palace at Selhurst in injury-time: a sign of the top-flight rollercoaster to come in SE25.
Established in the 1960/61 season as the Football League Cup – now, of course, referred to as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons – Palace admittedly needed time to find their feet in the competition.
A Division Four side at the time of its creation, the then-Glaziers were eliminated in the first round for its first four seasons in-a-row – initially losing 2-0 away to Darlington on 12th October 1960.
Our League Cup duck was thankfully eventually broken as a Division Three side in 1964/65, winning twice – against Tranmere Rovers and Southampton – to reach the fourth round, where we fell to Leicester City.
The Intertoto Cup was an accompanying tournament to the Champions League, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup. It initially hosted teams who had initially failed to qualify for either of those competitions but, in 1995, became a route for teams for the UEFA Cup.
Clubs earned entry to the summer-long tournament through application rather than merit, and so many do not count it as a major European competition.
But with Palace having been relegated from the Premier League the previous season, the Eagles still secured a brief one-tie European stint in July 1998, playing home and away against Turkish outfit Samspunspor.
By the time the game came around, financially-troubled Palace walked out against a side who had recently finished fifth in the Turkish 1.Lig. The Eagles line-up had a youthful sheen to it – but, firmly underdogs, they fell to consecutive 2-0 defeats.
The big one – a competition Crystal Palace Football Club are so deeply tied to.
Another occasion to fall during our amateur era, our first-ever FA Cup tie coincided with the first-ever draw in the FA Cup – with Palace held 0-0 by Hitchin Town in the first round, back on 11th November, 1871.
A report from the time paid much attention to the weather – strong winds and rain – and described a spirited, even game with “impetuous” Palace forwards and Hitchin having “slightly the best of it towards the end”.
Despite the game finishing 0-0, in an intriguing difference to modern-day rules, both teams duly went through to the second round! Find out more about the match here.
Palace would ultimately go on to reach the semi-finals, where another draw yielded the first-ever instance of an FA Cup replay – eventually resulting in a 3-0 defeat to the Royal Engineers.
It would be 154 years before we finally got our hands on the trophy, winning a competition we helped found.
But wasn’t it worth the wait?
You surely can all remember this one?
Our first major trophy back in May 2025 guaranteed another first for Palace – a chance to play for the Community Shield at Wembley the following August.
And the Eagles certainly made the most of their chance on one of the English football’s showpiece occasions.
Going head-to-head with Premier League holders Liverpool, Palace's spirits weren’t dampened by an early Reds goal from Hugo Ekitike, Jean-Philippe Mateta slotting home a penalty.
Liverpool again snatched the lead back in an absorbing contest through Jeremie Frimpong, but Oliver Glasner’s side grew into the contest the longer it went on. Eventually Ismaïla Sarr scored a late, but fully deserved, equaliser after a wonderful pass from Adam Wharton.
That meant a penalty shootout in the glorious Wembley sunshine, with Dean Henderson producing heroics, saving two spot kicks – Justin Devenny then smashing home the winning penalty at match point.
It had been 50 years – half a century – since the last time a debutant won the Community Shield, when Derby County defeated West Ham in their first appearance back in 1975.
Then Crystal Palace came along.
Okay, so two potential options for this one...
Let's start with the qualifier at home to Norwegian Cup winners Fredrikstad, on 21st August last year – the beginning of the long road which took us on our way, and indeed all the way, to Leipzig and beyond.
Although the Conference League had not been at the forefront of Palace’s thinking that historic FA Cup win at Wembley, there was no shortage of buzz around SE25 as the Palace supporters welcomed major European football to Selhurst Park, 101 years after its opening.
A light show and wall of noise welcomed both the FA Cup winners and Norwegian Cup winners to the pitch, with both sets of supporters – home and away – in fine voice.
It was a game of low blocks, fine margins and barely any chances in truth – but Jean-Philippe Mateta's instinctive header proved the difference early in the second-half, as Palace secured their place in the competition proper in disciplined fashion.
But it was our first match in the tournament proper where Crystal Palace really announced our arrival on the continental stage.
A landmark 2-0 win over Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv at Motor Lublin Arena saw us set a new club record of 19 matches unbeaten in all competitions.
Yeremy Pino was the architect of both goals as fine finishes either side of half-time from Daniel Muñoz – a superb looping header – and Eddie Nketiah – a sharp finish at the near post – saw the Eagles cap a professional performance during which they by-and-large outclassed Dynamo Kyiv, despite finishing the game with 10 men.
It was an occasion celebrated warmly and jubilantly by Palace fans in the streets of Lublin, Poland – hosting the match due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Crystal Palace’s sensational 2025, capped by a statement arrival in Europe.
Let's see if we can do it again in 2026, and the Europa League, shall we?
Crystal Palace v Lech Poznan