Shelbourne 0-3 Crystal Palace: Eagles boost top-eight hopes

Crystal Palace cruised to a routine 3-0 win at Shelbourne to boost their hopes of a top-eight finish in the Conference League.

Fourth in the Premier League, the Eagles have produced some underwhelming displays in Europe, suffering two defeats.

But the tournament favourites had far too much for Shelbourne in Dublin, with the Irish side still awaiting their first goal in the competition this season.

Goals from Christantus Uche, Eddie Nketiah and Yeremy Pino sealed the points for Palace, who are just a point outside the top eight with a game to play.

Palace face KuPS in their league phase finale next Thursday. Three points ahead of 25th-placed KuPS with a four-goal advantage in goal difference, they are all but assured of a place in the knockout rounds, but they will be desperate to clinch a top-eight spot and avoid the playoff round.

Crystal Palace cruise past Shelbourne

Palace needed only 11 minutes to break the deadlock when Nketiah pulled back for Uche to slot in at the end of a fine move from the visitors.

Glasner’s men unsurprisingly continued to pour forward and, after Adam Wharton had been denied by Wessel Speel, Nketiah doubled the lead.

Uche was unfortunate not to double his tally as he hit the post after sliding in to meet Pino’s clever throughball, but Nketiah was there to tap in from point-blank range.

Several more chances went begging for Uche, and Chris Richards hit the bar with a header from a corner before Pino put the game beyond doubt before half-time.

Pino surged through a gaping void in the Shelbourne midfield and let fly from just inside the area to find the bottom-left corner with an unstoppable low drive.

Palace had opportunities to pile on the pain in the second, Richards and Romain Esse each going close, the latter seeing an effort strike the inside of both posts and somehow stay out before Uche lashed over the crossbar when through on goal.

The failure to make the scoreline more emphatic mattered not, with the comfortable nature of the victory very helpful for Palace as they avoided exerting themselves too much ahead of Sunday’s clash with Manchester City.