Crystal Palace edge Aek Larnaca out of Conference League

Aek Larnaca’s European journey came to an end on Thursday night, after Crystal Palace beat them 2-1 at the Aek Arena to knock them out of the Conference League, though the English side did require extra time to do so, and survived a chaotic end to the game to continue their own European adventure.

The game was the two sides’ third meeting this season, with the previous two encounters having seen Aek secure an unlikely victory and a goalless draw, but two goals from Ismaila Sarr outnumbered one from Enric Saborit to send Crystal Palace through to the Conference League’s last eight.

Crystal Palace, who are themselves this season playing in European competition for the first time, started the better team, with England international Adam Wharton dictating the midfield from the off.

He created the game’s first chance on the five-minute mark, hooking the ball to Jorgen Strand Larsen, who himself volleyed the ball into the path of Sarr, who could only turn the ball the wrong side of Aek goalkeeper Zlatan Alomerovic’s near post.

Aek, however, did create chances of their own, with Riad Bajic testing but not troubling Palace’s stand-in goalkeeper Walter Benitez with a shot from 20 yards early on.

The goal came after a quarter of an hour, with Wharton integral to it, digging out a through ball to split Aek’s defence, which was deflected into the path of Sarr, who was already beyond the hosts’ defensive line. 

Alomerovic committed himself, rushing 25 yards off his line to meet the Senegalese forward, but Sarr was a step ahead, knocking the ball beyond him and then rolling it into the unguarded net beyond.

With Aek then forced to chase the game, it began to open up, with Strand Larsen the next to come close five minutes later.

Sarr and the 700 travelling Palace fans thought he had doubled their lead a couple of minutes later, when he was left unmarked to head a lofted Daichi Kamada cross beyond Alomerovic, but a very late flag from Azerbaijani linesman Zeynal Zeynalov saw it chalked off for offside.

Aek were the next to come close, with a low, trickled cross from Pete Pons inviting Bajic to extend his leg out in hope of reaching it. Instead of the ball, however, his boot reached the calf of Palace captain Maxence Lacroix, and the visitors were awarded a free kick.

Later in the first half, the two sides exchanged chances from aerial deliveries, with an expert chip from Wharton allowing Sarr to cross to Chris Richards, who could only head skywards, while at the other end, Angel Garcia whipped a cross to the head of Bajic. His effort was straight at Benitez, who duly gathered it.

Palace then had the final chance of the half, with a Wharton corner headed which was into the six-yard box by Lacroix producing a brief goalmouth scramble, though Alomerovic emerged from it with the ball cradled in his arms. 

For the first quarter of an hour of the second half, it seemed that while Aek had the better of the ball, Palace had things under control, with the hosts unable to generate any serious opportunities.

However, that changed in an instant in the 63rd minute, when a ball down a blind channel was deflected off Jaydee Canvot for a corner.

Marcus Rohden placed that corner perfectly onto the head of Enric Saborit, who produced a bullet header which was beyond Benitez before he could move a muscle.

Three sides of the Aek Arena then erupted in pandemonium and produced an ear-splitting roar, while substitutes, coaches, doctors, physios, and kit men poured onto the pitch from the home dugout. 

The hosts were on terms, and the fans could smell an upset.

Nonetheless, Palace rallied, with Wharton leading the charge, rifling a low shot from 20 yards towards the bottom left-hand corner. Alomerovic was equal to it, and reacted well to save again from Sarr’s follow up.

Seconds later, Saborit’s night took a drastic turn for the worse, when he received a second yellow card for blocking the run of Sarr as the pair chased a loose ball. 

The hosts were down to ten, but remained resolute until the 90 minutes were up, carried through by a few thousand buoyant and boisterous Skaliotes on three sides of the Aek Arena.

In the end, however, another half an hour of football a man light proved too much for last year’s Cypriot Cup winners, with last year’s FA Cup winners taking control of the tie in extra time.

The first half of extra time was played almost entirely in Aek’s half, with the visitors creating a flurry of chances, and eventually taking one, with a short corner taken to Kamada, who cut the ball inside to Sarr, whose first-time shot flew past Alomerovic and into the Aek net to give Palace back their lead.

Once ahead for the second time, they never looked like relinquishing their advantage, and twice came close to doubling it before the first half of extra time was over.

First, a shot from Sarr from 25 yards out cannoned off the crossbar, before Strand Larsen hit the post with a header seconds later. 

The second half of extra time descended into ignominy as the clock ran down, with water bottles and cups of hot drinks raining down on Walter Benitez and the tannoy announcer begging the fans to stop. 

Proceedings soon turned chaotic, too, when a deflected cross was gathered by Benitez, and Azerbaijani referee Aliyar Aghayev blew his whistle.

Around 10 seconds passed with no one inside the Aek Arena, least of all Aghayev knowing why exactly he had blown his whistle. He then pointed to the penalty spot, inviting a roar from the Aek fans and a mixture of dejection and protests from the Palace players and bench.

A few seconds later, he changed his decision again, seeming to award a goal kick, before realising that the ball never actually left the field of play, and attempting to restart play with a drop ball. 

By this time, the Aek fans behind Benitez’s goal had descended into vengeful righteous fury, and an avalanche of drinks bottles and various other items, including a corner flag, being launched from the terrace, as if the home faithful were Persians at the Battle of Thermopylae, blocking out the light from the floodlights as Benitez would have seen it.

After the drinks bottles and the corner flag were eventually cleared from the pitch, there was still time for more action, with Petros Ioannou bringing down Jean-Philippe Mateta with a late challenge in front of the Aek dugout.

He was given a yellow card for his troubles, before Dutch video assistant referee Jeroen Manschot intervened and persuaded Aghayev to upgrade Ioannou’s punishment to a red card, reducing the hosts to nine men.

Now vastly outnumbered, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, Aek continued to fight on, and even won a free kick at the death. 

Eight Aek players, including Alomerovic, piled into the Palace penalty box to attack it, and the cross found the goalkeeper, who had a couple of wild swings at the bouncing ball, before it broke to Ismaila Sarr. 

The Senegalese forward streaked free of the depleted Aek back line and bore down on goal, before rolling the ball towards the unguarded net from 30 yards away, with Alomerovic some 20 yards further behind.

The ball hit the near-side post and rolled across the empty Aek penalty box, before eventually being cleared, allowing for the curtain to be brought down on a tumultuous end to a hard-fought tie.

Palace won out, their European adventure goes on, though Aek can be proud that they pushed the Premier League side all the way.

Asked by the Cyprus Mail after full time about the chaotic final few minutes, Palace manager Oliver Glasner said, “welcome to European football”.

“When we, as a Premier League team, play in this Europa Conference League, we know that the opposition will be very excited, that the stadiums will be full, that the players and the coaches and the fans will be very excited for the game, and we must be prepared for this,” he said.