STAR FOOTBALL PREVIEW Thurs: Crystal Palace vs Zrinjski Mostar

Times can change quickly in football and there are few better examples of that than Crystal Palace, who will be desperate to prove the starsports.bet, odds wrong, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

Leading Palace to Europa and securing FA Cup glory had Oliver Glasner at near god-like status in south London, but since then the losses of high profile key players to bigger clubs (namely Eberechi Eze to Arsenal in the summer and Marc Gheui to Manchester City in the January transfer window), combined with the additional pressure of European football and injuries have seen a downturn in form over the winter. An injury to Jean-Philippe Mateta that scuppered a January move to AC Milan

Glasner, unhappy with the backing from the top of the club in the transfer market, announced in January that he’ll leave when his contract expires at the end of the season and gave some not well received advice that supporters should “stay humble” during a long winless stretch, leading to him being booed during Sunday’s last gasp Premier League win over bottom club Wolves.

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Crystal Palace vs Zrinjski Mostar
UEFA Conference League Play-Off 2nd Leg
20:00 TNT Sports 3 HD / Discovery+

LAST FIVE STATS

HEAD-TO-HEAD
FEB 2026 EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE Zrinjski Mostar 1-1 Crystal Palace

CRYSTAL PALACE
FEB 2026 PREMIER LEAGUE Crystal Palace 1-0 Wolves
FEB 2026 EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE Zrinjski Mostar 1-1 Crystal Palace
FEB 2026 PREMIER LEAGUE Crystal Palace 2-3 Burnley
FEB 2026 PREMIER LEAGUE Brighton 0-1 Crystal Palace
FEB 2026 PREMIER LEAGUE Nottingham Forest 1-1 Crystal Palace

ZRINJSKI MOSTAR
FEB 2026 BOSNIAN LEAGUE Zrinjski Mostar 1-1 NK Siroki Brijeg
FEB 2026 EUROPA CONFERENCE LEAGUE Zrinjski Mostar 1-1 Crystal Palace
FEB 2026 BOSNIAN LEAGUE B. Banja Luka 3-0 Zrinjski Mostar
FEB 2026 BOSNIAN CUP Zrinjski Mostar 4-0 Stupcanica
FEB 2026 BOSNIAN LEAGUE Zrinjski Mostar 1-0 Sloga Dobo
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The reverse leg of this tie, a 1-1 draw where away supporters called for Glasner to resign as Palace struggled, was a painful part of that recent winless run and doesn’t inspire confidence for their overall prospects of what looked like a winnable competition in the league phase.

The data counts from that game were unimpressive considering how much of the ball Palace had and they were hardly exceptional against Wolves at the weekend when they had a man advantage for half an hour, so there isn’t much appetite to get involved considering how short they are to win and qualify. Palace also failed to win against Fredrikstad, AEK Larnaca and Kupio, so backers at short prices with starsports.bet have been stung before and backing the visitors for small stakes with a generous handicap start might be the way to go.

If Palace’s standards aren’t higher than what we’ve seen recently then Zrinjski Mostar can make a decent fist of defending a two and three goal handicap start which may be the best play here.

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PROFIT/LOSS (FEB 2026): +12.02 points

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