Oliver Glasner says Crystal Palace head into our first Carabao Cup match of the season "ready to compete and win", as they prepare to host South London rivals Millwall at Selhurst Park on Tuesday (20:00 BST) evening.
Having qualified for European competition for the first time this season, the Eagles join the competition at the third-round stage in 2025/26 – and will take on familiar opposition in Millwall, whom they eliminated from the FA Cup last year in an eventful fixture in SE25.
Tickets remain on sale to all paid Members and Season Ticket holders (up to four tickets per client reference number) for the match, with more information here.
Ahead of the tie, Manager Oliver Glasner confirmed his intention to field a strong Crystal Palace starting XI – including two debutants – and discussed how his side would approach the fixture...
They're a team that's tough to play against: very physical, very direct, very strong with set-pieces, playing in a 4-4-2 shape, two strikers. They have tall, physical, centre-backs as well, quite direct, so they're not giving you a lot of space.
We played them in pre-season, our first game as well, behind closed doors, and they’re a good Championship team.
I think their start was okay, maybe not brilliant, but it was okay. They drew [1-1] at Charlton at the weekend.
We are ready for Millwall, but like with every other opposition, we have big respect for their players, for their manager, for the way they are playing – and we feel ready to compete and win.
Always. Every single game is a game to win, every single game is a game to show our way of playing, every single game now is a chance to get into the rhythm, because we need rhythm.
We have a few late signings, and they need to play a few minutes because we don't have training time, to give them time to adapt to the way we are playing, and therefore every game is important.
But, of course, at the end, there’s one big goal – to win the game – and this is regardless of which competition we are playing.
Palace are now unbeaten in 15 matches in all competitions, our record run as a top-flight club.
It's the players, the group of players. They can be proud because they did it, so it's their achievement, but I hope there will follow a few more.
We feel in very good shape. We had a long meeting today, where we showed the players where we can and also have to improve, to extend this [unbeaten] run, to win more games.
In the last games we were unbeaten, but I feel we had too many draws, and therefore we need to score more goals, and this is what we showed them, what we need more: we need more runs in behind, we need more to threaten the defensive line, we need more players in the box, being more ruthless around the box and in the box, and this is what we showed the players.
Tomorrow is the next opportunity to do it better, and this is what we will try.
Crystal Palace v Millwall
We feel ready to compete and win
—Oliver Glasner