Crystal Palace began the 2025–26 season as FA Cup holders and ended it as European champions. In between: a Europa League demotion on ownership grounds, Eberechi Eze's departure to Arsenal on the morning of the club's first ever European fixture, a Community Shield won on penalties against Liverpool, and Jean-Philippe Mateta heading Crystal Palace's first ever European goal against Fredrikstad FK at a packed and emotional Selhurst Park.

What followed was a Conference League campaign that took Palace to Lublin, Dublin, Strasbourg and beyond — six countries in six matchdays — alongside a Premier League season that peaked at fourth before a nine-game winless run, an FA Cup exit to non-league Macclesfield, and the sale of captain Marc Guéhi to Manchester City. The recovery came in February. The knockout rounds came in March: AEK Larnaca beaten in extra time in Cyprus, Fiorentina swept aside three-nil at Selhurst, Shakhtar Donetsk overcome in a Selhurst semi-final that the crowd will not forget.

And then Leipzig. The 27th of May 2026. Adam Wharton's shot spilled, Mateta's rebound, one-nil, the Conference League trophy lifted by Oliver Glasner in his final game as manager. Three major trophies in thirteen months for a club that had won nothing in a hundred and twenty years.

This episode covers the full season — the chaos, the exits, the European nights, the final — and closes with a farewell to Glasner and a look ahead to Pierre Sage and the UEFA Europa League.

Player of the Season: Jean-Philippe Mateta — scorer of the first and last European goals of the campaign.

Research Sources
2025–26 Crystal Palace F.C. season — Wikipedia and cpfc.co.uk match reports: full season including knockout rounds and Conference League final.

2026 UEFA Conference League final — Wikipedia: Crystal Palace 1-0 Rayo Vallecano, Red Bull Arena Leipzig, 27 May 2026. Mateta goal 51st minute (rebound from Wharton's spilled shot). Palace won 1-0, first club to win in debut continental campaign since 1979. Qualified for 2026-27 UEFA Europa League.

Crystal Palace in European football — Wikipedia: Full knockout round results: R16 AEK Larnaca (0-0 h, 2-1 aet a, agg 2-1; Sarr 13', 99'; Saborit 63', 73'); QF Fiorentina (3-0 h, 1-2 a, agg 4-2; Mateta scored first leg); SF Shakhtar Donetsk (1-0 a first leg, 3-1 h second leg, agg 5-2).

2025-26 UEFA Conference League — Wikipedia: Ismaïla Sarr top scorer with 9 goals, named player of the tournament. Palace finished 10th in league phase. Rayo Vallecano runners-up (first European final). Glasner farewell confirmed post-match.

Sky Sports / TNT Sports / cpfc.co.uk match reports: AEK Larnaca second leg detail — Benítez replaced ill Henderson; Sarr first goal from Wharton through-ball; Saborit equalisers; Sarr 99th minute winner. Fiorentina QF: Mateta's first goal since New Year's Day; Wharton and Lacroix injured first half second leg; Sarr scored in second leg.

SI.com and Bleacher Report on final: first half chances limited; Mitchell header wide just before HT; no shot on target for either team in first 30 minutes; Wharton drive spilled by Rayo GK; Mateta rebound 51 min; Palace defended magnificently in second half. Glasner confirmed leaving; confirmed friction with board following unnamed matters. Parish: "Sometimes the good guys win."

CPFC.co.uk Road to Leipzig page: Mateta's GoPro celebrations video (29 May 2026). Glasner final press conference (29 May 2026). Trophy lift footage.

Crystal Palace and Brighton are forty miles apart. There is no shared territory, no disputed geography, no natural reason for hostility. Roy Hodgson, who grew up in Croydon in the 1950s, recalls no awareness of Brighton as rivals at all. The enmity between the two clubs was not inevitable. It was created, on a specific evening in December 1976, by a referee's decision about encroachment, a saved penalty, a thrown cup of coffee, and a man who pulled loose change from his pocket and threw it on the floor of the away dressing room.

That man was Alan Mullery. The dressing room belonged to Terry Venables. What followed — the five penalties in one game, the decade of joint promotions, Mullery managing Palace and losing both derbies, the broken leg that triggered the worst violence in the fixture's history, the 4,962 days without a competitive meeting, poo-gate, and the modern Premier League era in which both clubs became genuine top-flight fixtures — is the story of English football's strangest and most personal rivalry.

This is a special deep-dive episode, stepping outside the series timeline to tell the full history of the M23 derby from its beginning to the present day.

Sources and Research

Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.–Crystal Palace F.C. rivalry — Wikipedia article (full competitive history, head-to-head record, all key incidents from 1905 through 2025).

Crystal Palace official website: "The Crystal Palace v Brighton rivalry explained" — official club account of the rivalry's history including the Mullery incident, five penalties game, 2011 Amex win, poo-gate, and 2024–25 Glasner double.

The Athletic / Yahoo Sports / Sporting News: rival accounts of the Mullery confrontation quoting Martin Hinshelwood directly: "Alan came in and said, 'This is what I think of you lot' and threw some coins on the floor. We had one or two heated players in the side and it just went off a little bit. Terry was in the dressing room. Venners was like, 'So what? We won. Unlucky.' The rivalry started from that. Venners always seemed to outdo Alan."

WereAreBrighton.com: "10 games which explain the Brighton v Crystal Palace rivalry" and "Five penalties in 27 minutes on the craziest of Easter Mondays" — detailed match-by-match accounts of key fixtures including the 1976–77 FA Cup second replay, the 1985 Gerry Ryan incident, and the 1989 five-penalties game.

Sussex Express and Red N Blue Army: detailed match report of Easter Monday 1989 — five penalties (Bright scored, Bright missed, Wright hit post, Curbishley scored for Brighton, Pemberton blazed over); four of five penalties to Palace; world record still stands; referee Kelvin Morton; Trusson red card; final score Crystal Palace 2-1 Brighton; crowd 14,384.

Steve Coppell quote on penalty-missing psychology from Crystal Palace official website feature on the 1989 game.

Sky Sports / Wikipedia: Premier League era fixtures; Christian Benteke 95th-minute winner February 2021; Neal Maupay lob equaliser September 2021 at Selhurst; Zaha's 8 goals vs Brighton; Patrick Vieira's last game was a Brighton defeat March 2023; Roy Hodgson's final away match was also a Brighton defeat.

Crystal Palace official website: December 2024 3–1 win at Amex (first home defeat for Hürzeler's Brighton); April 2025 2–1 win at Selhurst (first league double since 1933, first ever in top flight); Mateta goal, Welbeck equaliser, Muñoz winner; Nketiah red, Guéhi red, Van Hecke red; nine men Palace held on.