Glasner on taking chances, Pino's impact and more ahead of Larnaca
Manager Oliver Glasner faced the media ahead of Palace's decisive Round of 16 second leg against AEK Larnaca on Thursday in the UEFA Conference League (17:45 GMT).
Here's what Glasner had to say ahead of our UEFA Conference League clash in Cyprus as Palace look to make the last eight.
On team news....
Daniel Muñoz is fine to play. Dean Henderson unfortunately not.
He is still unwell. So we've decided he will stay in London.
But all the others are fit, with no injury concerns and that's positive.
On Palace's approach...
I think in both games [against Larnaca this season] it was 28-6 shots in our favour, and we always had three to four big chances, but also credit to their keeper.
I think twice he was man of the match so great saves and tomorrow it's important to take these chances. I'm pretty sure we will create a few.
Larnaca is a team that is very experienced, defending very well. Especially they changed the way they are playing. They had their league game on Monday and I think it was completely the opposite, were they had 75% possession.
Twice they have played with a back five against us and this is what we expect. We expect them to be very compact and that's what they do really well.
On the other side what we could see when we watched both games back, that we are able to create chances.
It's important to not go 'all in' from the first minute because they are good football players. They can score almost from nothing like we have seen in the first game against them and that's why we need to have a good balance.
But we are here with the confidence that we can score against them and that's how we approach the game tomorrow.
On the impact Yéremy Pino can have...
He perhaps lacks a bit of confidence at the moment. We can see it when he comes on. He tries very hard in training and in the games.
He wants to show up and prove how good he is. But he puts himself under too much pressure.
I spoke to him and said 'relax', because we can see how great a player he is and what a great finish he has in training. So he needs to keep himself at ease and trust in his skill and ability.
He gets all the support, because I'm very sure we need him until the end of the season.
If you work hard, everybody will come back into his best shape and that's what I know Yéremy will do.
We're looking forward to the stadium being full
—Oliver Glasner
On hearing about the decision regarding the AFCON final...
I must smile about this. I didn't realise and I didn't notice that Morocco went to the African Federation and honestly, I never read anything about this.
It's a weird situation to be honest, but I have to be careful because we have one Senegalese and one Moroccan player in our squad!
I just said to Ismaïla [Sarr], 'maybe give your gold medal to Chadi [Riad] or maybe send him your bonus.'
He was also laughing about it. But it's a weird situation.
On the atmosphere in Larnaca...
I don't think it [the atmosphere] will have an impact. But we're looking forward to the stadium being full. Our players are used to playing in full stadiums.
We saw a full Selhurst Park didn't impact the Larnaca players.
That's what we want. We prefer this to the stadium being empty.
That's why we all wanted to become professional footballers. Playing big games, playing in nice stadiums. That's very positive.
On creating chances...
We have confidence because we always create the chances to score. That's the most important part. Then it's about taking the chances.
If we hadn't created chances, then we would have more concerns, but we watched the game back and we were very dominant. As Jørgen mentioned before, I think this game could have ended 2-0.
But now it's a new game and the winner takes it all tomorrow.
Match Details
AEK Larnaca v Crystal Palace
- Thursday, 19th March
- 17:45 GMT / 19:45 EET local time
- AEK Arena
- UEFA Conference League play-off round, second leg
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+.