Troubled Palace fail to convince in Bosnia, as signs of general malaise continue

Lining up in Bosnia : Picture by Pennie Turrell

Europa Conference League play-off first leg

Zrinjski Mostar (0) 1 Abramovic 55

Crystal Palace (1) 1 Sarr 43

If Crystal Palace were doing their utmost to prevent a formality of a Europa Conference playoff second leg at Selhurst Park next Thursday, they have managed a pretty fair job of keeping the tie alive.

Palace's performance in the first leg against Zrinjski Mostar last night was hardly worthy of the alleged favourites to win the competition. Such was the insipid display by the visitors that cynics among the crowd of 7,152 in the Bijelim Brijegom stadium could have been excused for thinking Palace were deliberately trying to keep the score down.

But judging by the agitated state of Oliver Glasner on the touchline, the Palace manager was anything but satisfied with his team's contribution in the half-renovated ground.

Cranes dotted the skyline as Palace showed little for the domination that brought them 72 percent possession. The temptation to be done with his team by pushing them into the icy waters of the Neretva River from the city's ancient Stari Most bridge must have crossed Glasner's mind. Such a perilous fate might have been worth contemplating.

The game was so lacking in excitement that the game's first corner kick took 73 minutes to arrive and then Palace earned three in as many minutes, almost profiting from the last one when Chris Richards headed wastefully wide from Adam Wharton's flag kick.

Wharton, who had earlier forced a one-handed save from home goalkeeper Goran Karacic, had a strange game. If he was not attempting to inject some positive direction into Palace's endless lateral passing movements, he was conceding possession in vulnerable situations, never more so than when Leo Mikic seized on another slipshod pass to slip Karlo Abramovic through to score Mostar's 55^th minute equaliser with a low angled shot.

Palace had made a bright start with Ismaila Sarr shooting against the legs of Karacic and then beating the goalkeeper from close range only to see the offside flag raised on both occasions.

But the flag stayed down in the 43rd minute when Richards combined with Borna Sosa who crossed for Jorgen Strand Larsen to knock the ball back for Sarr to finally score the goal that he alone deserved.

As a unit, however, Palace hardly deserved to survive an appalling miss by the well-placed Antonio Ivancic or to escape again in the 80^th minute when the Lithuanian referee decided that a handball shout against Daniel Munoz did not warrant a penalty kick for the hosts.

"It’s half-time so now we have to sort it at Selhurst," said Glasner. But on current form, Palace will certainly not coast through to the knockout stages. It is now just one win in 15 games for the Eagles, who badly need to find some form in Sunday's home game against Wolves.

Mostar: (5-4-1): Karacic - Vranjkovic, Barisic, Savic, Dujmovic, Mamic (Lagumdzija 90) - Abramovic (Memija 86), Djurasek, Ivancic, Mikic (Sakota 76) - Cuze (Juric 94)

Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Richards, Lacroix (Canvot 64), Riad (Mitchell 87) - Munoz, Wharton, Kamada, Sosa - Sarr, Johnson (Pino 64) - Strand Larsen (Guessand 87)

Attendance: 7,152