Crystal Palace learned their Europa League league-phase draw in Monaco on Friday, and the route is a demanding one. Lyon, Real Sociedad, Sparta Praha, Lech Poznan and Hoffenheim are on the home side of the schedule, with away trips to Salzburg, Besiktas and Jagiellonia Bialystok.
Palace were placed in the third of four pots based on their UEFA club coefficient ranking, so this was never going to be a soft landing. Lyon bring the most obvious danger after winning 7 of 8 games in the 2025 Europa League, while Real Sociedad finished 10th in La Liga in 2025.
Palace's draw in Monaco
The draw gives Palace a bit of everything, from Lyon's European pedigree to a trip list that includes Besiktas and Jagiellonia Bialystok. That is a fair spread for a club whose domestic season ended with a 15th-place Premier League finish and 41 league goals in 2025.
The balance of the tie list matters because Palace are not walking into Europe as a side built on pure attacking volume. They had to be efficient to get through the league campaign, and the eight opponents now ask for that same sort of control across a longer European stretch.
The route Palace face
There is also the club's broader European context. Palace had initially qualified for the 2025/26 Europa League by winning the previous season's FA Cup, before UEFA demoted them after breaching its rules on multi-club ownership and Nottingham Forest were promoted in their place.
Pierre Sage was appointed in June to succeed Oliver Glasner after Glasner's exit at the end of his contract. He now takes over a European league phase that combines strong opposition, awkward travel and a draw that does not hand Palace many easy weeks.
The main thing Palace can point to is variety. Lyon and Real Sociedad look like the toughest names, but Salzburg, Besiktas and Jagiellonia Bialystok will ask different questions, and that is a fair test of where the club sit as they return to continental football.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
