Overview
Crystal Palace became the third English club to win the Conference League in the 5-year history of the league when they lifted the trophy at Leipzig last season, ending Oliver Glasner's memorable era.
Palace is also the first English team to win a major title right in their first European campaign since 1988, thereby affirming the special meaning of this championship.
On the journey to the throne, they are unbeaten in their last 6 home matches after losing to AEK Larnaca in the first match. However, poor performance at Selhurst Park in the domestic arena continues under new coach Pierre Sage.
The dramatic 2-3 defeat to Ipswich Town caused Sage to suffer 2 defeats in his first two times leading Palace at Selhurst Park, even though his team had defeated Middlesbrough at home in the Carabao Cup.
Palace has only won 11 points at home in the Premier League in 2026 and is currently ranked 16th in the standings. Sage will need to quickly find a solution when Crystal Palace returns to play in the European arena.
While Palace started their European journey this season from the group stage, Lech Poznan had to go through qualifiers to qualify for the Europa League.
After losing to AGF in the penalty shootout and failing to qualify for the Champions League, Lech successively surpassed KI Klaksvik and Thun. Notably, Lech defeated Thun 7-0 at home before drawing 2-2 in the second leg, thereby easily winning a place in the play-offs.
After reaching the round of 16 of the Conference League last season, the team nicknamed Railwaymen continued to successfully defend the Polish championship. This achievement helped Lech participate in UEFA tournaments for the first time since 1985 for two consecutive seasons.
Lech also started the new season quite well when they won 5 of 7 matches in the Ekstraklasa. However, they just suffered a 1-2 defeat to league leaders Gornik Zabrze in the most recent round, despite leading the opponent until the last 15 minutes of the match.
Personnel situation
Crystal Palace continues to be short of Dean Henderson, Chadi Riad and Jean-Philippe Mateta due to injury, while Eddie Nketiah's ability to play is still uncertain.
Ismaila Sarr also had to be sidelined due to a groin injury after unable to leave Crystal Palace in the transfer window. However, the Senegalese winger is currently likely to return. Sarr was Palace's top scorer in the Conference League championship journey last season with 9 goals.
On Lech's side, Pontus Walemark is in impressive form with 6 goals after 6 qualifying matches. The Swedish winger is likely to join his compatriot Mikael Ishak in attack.
Ishak, a veteran captain of Lech, has scored 18 goals in 28 appearances for the club in major UEFA tournaments.
Expected lineup:
Crystal Palace: Benitez, Mingueza, Richards, Ahanor, Khalaily, Timber, Wharton, Chilwell, Kamada, Pino, Strand Larsen.
Lech Poznan: Lis, Pereira, Skrzypczak, Monka, Gurgul, Murawski, Berggren, Walemark, Rodriguez, Sayyadmanesh, Ishak.
The match between Crystal Palace and Lech Poznan takes place at 2:00 AM on September 18 (Vietnam time).
