Crystal Palace 3-0 Fiorentina: Glasner's side put on a show to take commanding first-leg lead

  /  autty

Crystal Palace gained a massive advantage in their Europa Conference League first-leg, picking up a confident 3-0 victory over Fiorentina at Selhurst Park. 

Oliver Glasner's side started brightly and nearly took the lead twice in the opening minutes as Jean-Philippe Mateta and Evann Guessand both fired wide from a pair of Daniel Munoz crosses. 

Mateta eventually put Palace ahead in the 24th minute as he coolly sent his penalty straight down the middle after Guessand was felled inside the box by Dodo. 

Tyrick Mitchell then doubled the hosts' lead just seven minutes later as his left-footed strike flew across the face of goal and into the bottom right corner to put Palace in a commanding position. 

Daichi Kamada went close to adding a third, while Dean Henderson was called into action at the other end to deny Albert Gudmundsson's arrowed header. 

Both Mateta and Ismalia Sarr sent headers off target as Fiorentina offered little resistance, before the latter sealed an emphatic victory and extended Palace's first-leg lead on the stroke of full-time, powering home Kamada's cross into the top right corner. 

Data Debrief: Eagles fly high in spectacular first-leg performance

Fiorentina were simply no match for Palace on this occasion, with the Eagles living up strongly to their 3.05 expected goals (xG), while the visitors could only manage 0.45 xG in response. 

Glasner's side also extended their formidable scoring run in the Conference League, having now netted in nine of their 11 matches. Only Lech Poznan (10) have scored in more matches in the competition this term. 

Fiorentina, meanwhile, attempted eight shots (two on target), marking their lowest total in a single match in this season's Conference League. 

Related: Crystal Palace Fiorentina Oliver Glasner Jean-Philippe Mateta
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