Oliver Glasner makes Crystal Palace promise but sends 'arrogant' warning to players

Oliver Glasner prepared for Crystal Palace's European audition by playing golf with Eagles fans - now he hopes an overseas away trip becomes par for the course.

The South Londoners will play their first away tie on Thursday night when they take a slender 1-0 lead to Norway to face Fredrikstad FK in the second leg of their Conference League play-off.

Despite being kicked out of the Europa League - a spot they earned after winning last season's FA Cup - for breaking multi-club ownership rules, Glasner is aware that playing in Europe's third-tier competition is still historic for the club.

The Austrian spent Tuesday playing mini-golf with his wife and daughter at Battersea Park and a chance meeting with a family of Palace fans drilled home the importance of reaching the group stages.

He said: "My family was in London and I went to Battersea Park with my wife and my daughter and played mini-golf, and just before us there was a family with two boys, season ticket holders, massive Palace fans.

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"Because we have to wait behind them, we had some small talk. We could see how they were enjoying it - they were saying 'thank you'. We could see and feel how much it meant to the Palace supporters. The away sector will be sold out and we will give our best.

"We never thought this would happen, and now it happened, and so we should enjoy going to Norway, enjoying this beautiful country, a nice game, and hopefully going away with a win."

Jean-Philippe Mateta’s instinctive header gives Palace a cushion going into the second leg, with Glasner confirming they will train on Fredrikstad's artificial pitch to get used to it.

He's not looking beyond Thursday night's match and downplayed any talk of Palace being among the favourites for the Conference League. “I think it would be arrogant to think when you play a competition for the first time to talk about winning it,” he added.

“It's the first time Palace plays outside England in a competitive game (major European competition), so it's important to stay humble, and this is what we are doing as a team.”

Glasner had mixed injury news when speaking to the media on Wednesday, confirming that Will Hughes and Odsonne Edouard have been ruled out. But Daichi Kamada, who has missed the first three games of the season with a knee injury sustained in the Community Shield win over Liverpool, is back and could start on Thursday night.

“Hughes told us he can't train and play tomorrow,” Glasner said. "Fortunately, Kamada came back. He had an injury and he is back two weeks after it. The expectations were more four to six weeks so we need to have players available and be ready for the game.”

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