Crystal Palace vs Fredrikstad LIVE: Conference League play-off result, latest updates and reaction after unconvincing Eagles win | OneFootball

The Eagles embark on a maiden European campaign

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Jean-Philippe Mateta’s second-half header made all the difference on Thursday as Crystal Palace edged a narrow win over Fredrikstad to open their Conference League campaign. With Eberechi Eze out of the squad - ill according to Oliver Glasner but set to join Arsenal according to others - the south London outfit were devoid of attacking creativity, content to simply loose cross after cross over the Fredrikstad box.

Throughout the first half, few created much threat, if any. They could still have opened the scoring, though, as Mateta rattled the post and Ismaila Sarr forced a save from Martin Borsheim. The match was deadlocked at half-time, but Mateta changed that shortly after the break, flicking Will Hughes’ looping volley beyond the ‘keeper. They again went close in the late stages as Daniel Munoz took his turn to hit the post, but Fredrikstad then responded with a huge chance of their own. They countered at pace, missing narrowly with a shot which could have turned a celebratory evening sour.

It is only a narrow lead for the Eagles, who travel to Norway for the second leg next week. Catch up with the action as it happened below!