Palace power past Lech Poznan to win on Europa League debut

Crystal Palace cruised to victory in their first-ever Europa League game with a 4-0 win over Polish champions Lech Poznan at Selhurst Park.

Last season's Conference League winners almost got off to the worst possible start, but Mikael Ishak missed the target for the visitors from six yards out, with just three minutes on the clock.

They were made to pay moments later when Yeremy Pino intercepted a 20-yard throw across the edge of his own penalty area from Terry Yegbe, with Pino striding into the area and popping the ball into the corner.

Palace's second was even more simple, with Chris Richards rising highest at the back post from an Adam Wharton corner to steer his header across the goalkeeper and into the net.

Pino was also instrumental in the third, intercepting on the left flank before gliding into the area where he was clumsily brought down by Radoslaw Murawski.

The referee gave a penalty and Jorgen Strand Larsen made no mistake, drilling across the goalkeeper and into the top-left corner.

Murawski was sent off late in the second half after collecting his second caution of the game and Palace capitalised just before full-time with a nice finish from substitute Eddie Nketiah.

Nketiah had come on at the same time as Ismaila Sarr, who received a mixed reception from Palace fans as he made his first appearance of the season since a failed summer move to Liverpool.

Twitter This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies. You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Twitter cookies or to allow those cookies just once. You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. To view this content you can use the button below to allow Twitter cookies for this session only.

3: CLOSE! Ishak spruns a gilt-edged opportunity to put Lech Poznan in front. He misses the target from close range!

10: GOAL! Pino capitalises upon an awful throw from Yegbe. He strides into the area and calmly slots Palace into the lead.

27: GOAL! Richards peels away at the back post to head in from Wharton's corner.

33: PENALTY! Pino is brought down clumsily by Murawski.

34: GOAL! Strand Larsen puts the penalty away emphatically. He whips it across the goalkeeper and into the top corner.

77: CLOSE! Nketiah should score after being put through by the outstretched Pino. Nketiah drags his shot wide!

87: RED CARD! Murawski is sent off after picking up a second yellow card for a ludicrous challenge!

89: GOAL! Nketiah finds some space in the area, he checks inside and guides his shot into the bottom corner.

Crystal Palace boss Pierre Sage after the 4-0 win over Lech Poznan:

"Lot of satisfaction (after beating Lech Poznan) because we scored four goals in a different way with four different players.

"It was a clean sheet too, that's really important for us because we worked a lot on these things after the game in Ipswich.

"I remember during the first half and the second half, we had two periods when we struggled a little bit in the play.

"We have to be more consistent, especially with the ball, because when we recovered the ball in these two times, we gave it back too quickly because I think we wanted to play too quick forward and we need to have more control."