When Crystal Palace most needed someone to lead the way and use their experience to guide them, the two people in the club with European success under their belts already stood up.
A Conference League semi-final first leg with Shakhtar Donetsk was always going to be different; unprecedented pressure both in terms of its significance but also on the Palace goal.
The importance of the occasion could easily have become stifling. The threat from the Ukrainian side, whose style is unlike any of the teams Palace have faced in the competition to date, might have been overwhelming.
It might have been true even after Ismaila Sarr scored the fastest goal in Conference League history after 21 seconds. It might have been true when Palace found themselves leading 3-1, as Shakthar never relented in their pursuit of a goal to keep them in with a chance of reaching the final in Leipzig.
Yet it wasn’t. On the pitch, that was in large part thanks to Daichi Kamada. The Japanese midfielder was everywhere. He was defensively excellent and outstanding in transition. His well-taken goal after 58 minutes to give Palace the lead for a second time came at a crucial point in the tie and his assist for Jorgen Strand Larsen on the counter for Palace’s late third, which may well prove decisive, was perfectly calm, measured and controlled.
He is, said his manager Oliver Glasner in his post-match press conference, “a player for big games”. That, it seems, is especially true in Europe. It was on April 28, 2022 — almost four years to the day — that he scored for Glasner’s Eintracht Frankfurt side in their Europa League semi-final first-leg win over West Ham United at the London Stadium. They won the competition that season.
“Daichi did so well in midfield,” the Palace manager added. “It’s really difficult with how quick their rotations were, (but he was) defending and getting the ball forward.”
Goals have not come freely enough for Kamada but that is true for all of Palace’s midfielders. His winning goal at Villa Park in a Carabao Cup fourth-round victory in October 2024 was the last by any of them. But as he has found his feet with Palace, everything has clicked into place for him. This was his most accomplished performance yet.
His goal was an example of keeping his head to control an awkwardly falling ball as he struck it, and then for Palace’s third, carrying the ball forward and timing his pass just right for Strand Larsen.
Having found his home as a No 6 after an awkward introduction at No 10 in the Premier League since joining two years ago after his Lazio contract expired, Kamada has become an integral player. He was greatly missed after a hamstring injury but he was at the heart of everything his side did well against Shakhtar.
That tenacity, the intelligence to position himself and the technical capability to then execute what was required, carrying the ball forward or passing it at the right time, were all on display. It was the most accomplished performance in a high-pressure match that Palace supporters would have seen for a long time.
His was the name serenaded late on in Krakow. “Follow, follow, follow, Daichi Kamada is running the show,” the Palace supporters sang.
It is a testament to his relationship with Glasner that it was possible. They trust each other. The manager stuck by him as he adapted to playing for Palace and, particularly, in the Premier League. There was always the knowledge from his manager that he would come good. He has.
“I have played many European games and I have experience,” Kamada said in a press conference before the quarter-final second leg with Fiorentina. “But I really don’t know how much I can help the team.
“At least we, me and the gaffer, we’ve already won the European titles. Our tactic is very much to play the tournament games because I think his defensive tactic is the one of the best tactics in the world, so that’s why we performed well in the European competition.”
Glasner deserves a similar level of praise. The emotion that led to his repeated outbursts in January has always been on display and suggestions that he had given up were always contradicted by both his words and his in-game actions.
But his knowledge of how to win in Europe, having done so with Kamada when in charge of Frankfurt, has helped Palace navigate a difficult, awkward competition where they have come up against such varying opponents, such different challenges.
They may have stumbled their way into the quarter-finals but since then, they have been the product of a manager who knows how to win, and who has shown that despite a rigid tactical set-up and a demand for consistency and familiarity, he can be sufficiently flexible.
Glasner has repeatedly questioned how Palace could be favourites to win the Conference League, given most of his players have never played in European competition before, and not together. It has never been a question of refusing to believe in his squad, or in himself, but he was simply speaking about the practicalities of a club and a team which had never enjoyed this level of success before.
“I see myself as a guide, a supporter,” he said post-match. It was, he said, his job to “help the players”.
“That doesn’t always mean hugging them. Sometimes you help people when you are critical and tell them what they need to do better. Very often, if someone says you should do better, they might cross their arms (defensively) but it’s meant positively. This is the same with European competition.
“The players believe in what we are telling them. Maybe it helps that we won trophies together. We had similar games against Villa in the semi-final (of the FA Cup last season) and the same against Manchester City (when winning the final).”
All of that will be required for next week’s second leg. Shakhtar, despite only one shot on target — from which they scored — are a dangerous opponent. Their own experience in Europe as a club will have helped them prepare, and will surely be channelled at Selhurst Park.
In the end, Glasner and Kamada’s experience told. So too did the knowledge Palace have gained throughout this European run. But there is, as Glasner has made abundantly clear, no substitute for the comfort and learnings of having done it all before.
It is all a little bittersweet, though. Glasner will leave in the summer and Kamada will likely do so too, as both their contracts expire. But if they can propel Palace to Conference League glory, another trophy and into next season’s Europa League, then it will be the ultimate parting gift.
They are not there yet but that know-how has left Palace with one foot in the final.