Five things to watch out for from April's Open Training

First-team

7 Apr 2025

As Crystal Palace prepare to face Manchester City this weekend, this is your rare opportunity to glimpse behind the scenes and watch Oliver Glasner's side in a full training session – don’t miss out!

You can take a look at how the Palace first-team prepare for a Premier League game, with Tuesday's open first-team training session to be held at Selhurst Park for supporters to enjoy.

It will be Palace's first day back in training after Saturday's thrilling 2-1 win over Brighton & Hove Albion, and fans will have the opportunity to watch the first-team squad being put through their paces ahead of this weekend's clash at Manchester City.

If you're heading down to Selhurst, here's what you might want to look out for...

Running Order

10am: The Selhurst Park Fanzone will open, with activities including facepainting; the chance to shoot your shot in games run by the Palace for Life Foundation; and with food and soft drinks available.
10:30am: Turnstiles will be open for fans to enter the stadium and take your seat.
(Estimated) 11:15am - Pre-session interview with first-team coach Paddy McCarthy + FREE t-shirt giveaways!
(Estimated) 11:30am - Open Training commences.
(Estimated) 1pm - Open Training ends, with – if time allows – a post-session Q+A and signing session.

Please be aware that the post-session Q&A/signing session cannot be guaranteed.

If this does go ahead, players will be out for no longer than 20 minutes, and fans will only be able to have up to one item of merchandise signed. Due to high demand and limited time, therefore, we cannot guarantee you will get an item signed.

Elite-level preparation

If you've ever wondered just what goes into making a Premier League team tick on a weekend - it's well worth coming down and checking out Tuesday's session.

Only when you watch players training up close do you realise the levels at which they prepare each week. Remember that even the most promising Academy prospects or arrivals from overseas admit how much the pace and power of these sessions is a step up from anything they have experienced before.

Next time you see Daniel Muñoz charging up and down the right flank at SE25, you'll know the work that makes it possible.

Some incredible shooting drills

The best thing about training - well at least for the attackers in the squad - are taking part in some fast and furious shooting drills.

You could witness, up close, the sort of razor sharp finishing we recently saw from Eddie Nketiah in Marbella. It's always an entertaining watch!

All aboard the showboat...

Here's a little-known fact about professional footballers - they quite like embarrassing one another in training. So don't be surprised if you see some tricks, flicks and nutmegs going on throughout the session.

Maybe Ebs will put his mannequin challenge pose-style trick we saw at Craven Cottage when facing up with Joachim Andersen last month?

Goalkeeping chaos

Whenever you watch a goalkeeping training session, you'll normally find something amusing.

If we get a warm-up involving a classic game of head tennis, you can expect some chaos. As we saw in Marbella only last month during the warm weather training camp.

A tactical masterclass pending

Manager Oliver Glasner will have already set his sights on the trip to Manchester City only hours after our win over Brighton.

And even though it will be at Selhurst Park, this session will play a crucial part in our build-up for Saturday's trip to the Etihad Stadium.

Preparation is everything for elite coaches, so why not come on down and see what drills the players will be put through.

Open Training Details

Tuesday, 8th April
Entry from 10:30 BST
Any supporters with access requirements are asked to please email dlo@cpfc.co.uk in advance.

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