Victory was key for Oliver Glasner’s team if they were to keep on top of any ambition to bypass February’s Conference League play-off round and it came with room to spare, Maxence Lacroix and Ismaila Sarr scoring in the first half to make up for Jean-Philippe Mateta’s missed penalty.

The game ought to have been over by half-time. Palace twice hit the goal frame while the visiting goalkeeper Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro was excellent, producing one particularly fine save from Sarr as well as keeping out Mateta from 12 yards.

The Eredivisie side were a pale impression of the one Louis van Gaal led to the title in 2009. Their manager Maarten Martens was a key member of that side, and he at least saw his team pull a goal back through captain Sven Mijnans early in the second half, albeit heavily d

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