Jorgen Strand Larsen was delighted to score for Crystal Palace but insisted they would not celebrate their big win over Shakhtar Donetsk too much.
Palace will take a 3-1 lead at Selhurst Park in their Conference League semi-final, after claiming a big win in the first leg at Krakow’s Synerise Arena.
Ismaila Sarr scored with just 21 seconds on the clock – the fastest goal in the competition’s history – before Shakhtar equalized two minutes into the second half.
However, Daichi Kamada and Strand Larsen, who came off the bench to score his first Conference League goal, gave Palace a great cushion and helped them get a foothold in the main match.
Palace remain favorites to lift the trophy at the end of the season, with supercomputer Opta putting their chances at 59%.
But Strand Larsen is determined not to get ahead, despite having received a much-needed confidence boost in front of goal.
“I needed that. I had bad luck against Liverpool; I felt my confidence had gone down, but I always keep going,” he told TNT Sports.
“It’s tough, two good players [he and Jean-Philippe Mateta] Fighting for a position, but coming in and scoring is incredible.
“You could see after we scored early that they are a good team. We had to stay in, not lose our heads. We are 3-1 up, but there is still one game left to play. It was important for me and the team to get the third.
“We know the structure of the coach and the team. We had to accept that they are a good team, so we had to sit a little further back, but we did well on the counterattack, and if we had been even better, we could have scored more.
“We’re not going to celebrate too much. We’re very happy with this. Hopefully, we’ll get it done on Thursday and move on.”
Palace had fewer shots than Shakhtar (10 to 15), but they hit seven of their own and accumulated 2.3 expected goals (xG), after also hitting the post thanks to Mateta.
At the other end, they limited Shakhtar to just one shot on goal while putting in a determined defensive display.
“I’m very happy and very satisfied with the performance,” Glasner told TNT Sports. “You have to give the players credit: they stuck to the plan and worked very hard, every single one of them on defense.
“We didn’t give them much. They were a big threat on set pieces, weren’t they? This is where we conceded, but I think we were also equal when we went forward. When we were on attack, it was always very threatening.
“I was very impressed with the reaction the team showed when we conceded the tie because all of a sudden we had two or three great chances, we missed them, and then it was a long throw-in, and we took the lead again, and then we waited for our situation. Great impacts from the bench.
“Overall, we are very satisfied with the performance, but it is only the first step. I think we have to do even better at home to reach the final.”
