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A lengthy break for Crystal Palace is looming regardless of what happens in the UEFA Conference League clash against AEK Larnaca on Thursday.
Victory over the Cypriot side would ensure Oliver Glasner still has a trophy to fight for in his final campaign at Selhurst Park, but there is plenty of work to do after two incredibly uninspiring 0-0 draws against AEK Larnaca and Leeds.
Fortunately – if Crystal Palace do progress into the last eight of the UEFA Conference League – there will be ample time to iron out the creases in training at Copers Cope.
Carabao Cup final a contributing factor to lengthy Crystal Palace delay
In terms of the current fixture list, there will be a gap of 23 days between the clash against AEK Larnaca on Thursday – which Aliyar Aghayev will referee – and our next scheduled match, a Premier League game against Newcastle at Selhurst Park.
If we beat AEK Larnaca, there will still be a 21-day break until our next game, a UEFA Conference League quarter-final against either Fiorentina or Rakow.
This break is due to the fact Manchester City face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday, on a weekend where Crystal Palace were supposed to be playing the Citizens on Saturday 21st March.
There is then an international break, before an FA Cup weekend once club football has resumed – which Crystal Palace, of course, have no involvement in following that defeat to Macclesfield in the third round.
Photo by Sebastian Frej/Getty Images
This is sure to be a gruesome break for Crystal Palace fans if Glasner – who was called out by Zrinjski Mostar – fails to overcome AEK Larnaca, with 23 days to mull over the fact the season is basically over.
However, if we can defeat the team from Cyprus, the 21-day gap offers the squad a chance to regroup and focus on the business end to the campaign, in what could almost be described as a mini pre-season if you will.
Longest breaks in the history of Crystal Palace
According to The Palacetician on X – previously known as Twitter – this potential break of 23 days would be up there with the longest gap between fixtures in club history.
The record currently stands at 105 days, but that was down to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crystal Palace also had a break of 35 days during the ‘Big Freeze’ winter during the 1962/63 campaign, failing to play a match between 2nd February and 9th March of that season.
There was also a 44-day gap in the 2022/23 campaign caused by the winter World Cup in Qatar, along with a break of 28 days in the same season following the death of Queen Elizabeth II and an international break.
So, if we do have to face a gap of 23 days until our next fixture should AEK Larnaca knock us out of the UEFA Conference League, it would go down as one of the lengthiest breaks in Crystal Palace history.