{"id":930045,"date":"2026-10-16T08:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930045\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T08:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:28:11","slug":"crystal-palace-pay-price-for-another-sluggish-start-and-sage-must-find-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930045\/","title":{"rendered":"Crystal Palace pay price for another sluggish start and Sage must find answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

It costs nothing to dream, and you\u2019d forgive Crystal Palace<\/a> fans for daring to do so for another European trophy \u2013 especially after their 4-0 win over Lech Poznan on matchday one. But their clash with Lyon served as a back-down-to-earth reminder of how much tougher it will be to stage a strong Europa League run.<\/p>\n

This is, after all, a team still finding their new identity under Pierre Sage. Never mind the increase in level of opposition from when they were in the Conference League, which was plainly evident away at Lyon.<\/p>\n

Palace just weren\u2019t at the races fast enough in France and, one spell in the second half aside, rarely looked like they\u2019d get up to speed.<\/p>\n

Poor starts are becoming something of a theme for Palace under Sage \u2013 and he knows it. Only once from their six league games this season so far have they taken the lead, and that was in a game they still went on to lose (to Ipswich Town).<\/p>\n

Once again, they gave their opponents a head start, with Lyon\u2019s Corentin Tolisso reacting to a second ball from a corner to put his side in front within the opening 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

Something seems off with Palace\u2019s preparation (even after keeping the referee waiting with an excessive huddle pre-match). These things can happen in set-piece situations, but they just weren\u2019t alert enough.<\/p>\n

In fact, all throughout the first half, they looked leggy. Their formation was stretched, with Lyon taking advantage, particularly out wide. Palace are well used to playing in a system with wing-backs by now, even before Sage, but you wouldn\u2019t have guessed it looking at how they were exploited in those areas.<\/p>\n

Keito Nakamura was a thorn in Palace\u2019s side, creating lots of danger from the left. He found himself in acres of space for the move that led to Lyon\u2019s second goal just before half time, playing the ball in for Ernest Nuamah to finish.<\/p>\n

Daniel Munoz was always going to be a tough act to follow at right-back for Palace, and it will take time for one of his replacements \u2013 Oscar Mingueza was the starter this time, with Anan Khalaili replacing him later on \u2013 to prove themselves a worthy successor.<\/p>\n

But while Palace\u2019s start to the game had been questionable, Sage must have got a better message across at half time.<\/p>\n

Palace pressed higher and put more pressure on Lyon, which paid off when Yeremy Pino got them on the scoreboard just five or so minutes in.<\/p>\n

Remember that stat earlier about how infrequently Palace take the lead in games this season? Well, they\u2019ve scored the first goal of the second half in three of their league games and all three across the cups, including tonight.<\/p>\n

There were still times when Palace looked stretched, but it\u2019s something they\u2019re going to have to get used to quickly balancing the conveyor belt of games that comes from being a European side.<\/p>\n

Of course, they coped admirably with the Conference League, but the Europa League is a different level of intensity, especially against a team like Lyon who could have reasonable ambitions of aiming for the final.<\/p>\n

Palace gave themselves a chance with their shift in mentality in the second half. Even when they saw the two-goal gap open up again after a clever backheel finish by a just-onside Pavel Sulc, they were able to hit back and keep themselves in it with a goal in response from Daichi Kamada.<\/p>\n

But there was to be no equaliser, with Palace left to rue their lack of momentum from the off.<\/p>\n

There are things to like about this squad. They wouldn\u2019t have achieved what they have over the past couple of seasons if not, even if some key players have moved on or were unavailable.<\/p>\n

But this was a reality check of how they will need to step up in the Europa League ahead of next week\u2019s game against Besiktas.<\/p>\n

They will, of course, hope for a step up in refereeing standards too, compared to the questionable decision-making from Joao Pinheiro on this occasion. But their undoing was their own.<\/p>\n

If Sage can fire his troops up like he seemed to manage to at half time, Palace will stand a better chance. But they were too passive from the first minute and need to make sure they can be consistent for a full European game of this stature.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a situation they would have snapped hands off to be in a few years ago, so it\u2019s important to retain perspective. But if you get to this level and show you can be successful, you might as well try to\u00a0 compete with the next step.<\/p>\n

Compete they did, but just not enough over the full affair. If they are to make their European dreams last, that will have to improve.<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Conte to Man Utd, Simeone to Arsenal, Frank to Fulham: Every Premier League club\u2019s next manager revealed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It costs nothing to dream, and you\u2019d forgive Crystal Palace fans for daring to do so for another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10195,6254,1523,2723,585,43,818,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-930045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-crystal-palace","tag-europa-league","tag-f365-features","tag-f365-says","tag-front-page","tag-headlines","tag-home-page","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}