STAR FOOTBALL PREVIEW Thu: Crystal Palace v KuPS

December is always a busy time of year for football fans, and Crystal Palace supporters certainly won’t lack the chances to see their club in action, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

Tonight’s final Conference League game against Finnish champions KuPS – at least to the league phase – is the first part of a potential defining week of the season, with Leeds away at 8pm on Saturday in the Premier League before a Carabao Cup quarter-final at Arsenal next Tuesday.

Tonight’s encounter is potentially vital to them – if they win, there’s a chance of a top eight finish, meaning a smaller squad than most avoids a two-legged play-off round next year. Palace sit ninth in the 36-team table and just one point outside the top eight, although they will be helped by the fact that Samsunspor (fifth) host AEK Athens (fourth) in a very tight table.

Palace couldn’t live with Manchester City’s quality on Sunday, although a 3-0 scoreline was unfair, particularly after a very strong first half, and previously they’d racked up a hat-trick of wins over Burnley, Fulham and Shelbourne.

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Crystal Palace v KuPS
UEFA Conference League
20:00 TNT Sports 1 HD / TNT Sports Ultimate / Discovery+

HEAD-TO-HEAD

LAST FIVE STATS
First meeting between teams

CRYSTAL PALACE
DEC 2025 PREMIER LEAGUE Crystal Palace 0-3 Manchester City
DEC 2025 EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE Shelbourne 0-3 Crystal Palace
DEC 2025 PREMIER LEAGUE Fulham 1-2 Crystal Palace
DEC 2025 PREMIER LEAGUE Burnley 0-1 Crystal Palace
NOV 2025 PREMIER LEAGUE Crystal Palace 1-2 Manchester United

KuPS
DEC 2025 EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE KuPS 0-0 Lausanne
NOV 2025 EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE Jagiellonia 1-0 KuPS
NOV 2025 VEIKKAUSLIIGA HJK Helsinki 0-2 KuPS
NOV 2025 EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE KuPS 3-1 S. Bratislava
NOV 2025 VEIKKAUSLIIGA KuPS 3-2 FC Inter

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KuPS – also known as KPS Kuopio – are reigning Finnish Veikkausliiga champions and lead the vision by four points so far but they’ve found the step up to European competition a big learning curve based on their record of three draws, one loss and one win from their five games so far.

Dara suggests that they were lucky to take a point from their 0-0 draw at home with Lausanne a week ago and their away record doesn’t bode well, with no goals scored on their last five European away trips in Europa League and Champions League qualifying as well as the Conference League to boot.

In their away Conference League fixtures, they’ve drawn 0-0 away to Breidablik of Iceland, and lost 1-0 at Jagiellonia, suggesting that odds of 10/1 with starsports.bet are right.

Crystal Palace have looked pretty comfortable in this company bar a shock loss to AEK Larnaca and a 2-1 loss at table toppers Strasbourg when wastefulness in front of goal cost them at least a point, and they should be able to cut loose here.

Oliver Glasner has team choices to make, but Palace have every incentive for victory here and they’ve played reasonably strong sides in this competition so far. Take the hosts to pass a one-goal handicap.

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PROFIT/LOSS (DEC 2025): +12.96 points

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