⚽UEFA Conference League Discussion Thread -- 2025/26 | Group Phase

[Varnquister]

Shakhtar will have the advantage since they’ll play the first leg at home. Although Crystal Palace appears to be the favorite in this matchup, their performance doesn’t strike me as particularly promising. I must say I have my doubts about whether they can advance. If Shakhtar wins at home, they’ll have a chance to advance even with a draw on the road. The result of this match will be crucial for them.

[buwaytress]

Man, Rayo did it again. But they needed the win. No one comes without shellshock to their pitch and they usually lose away when opponents don't have to figure out potholes haha. Strange season but this is the true fairytale of Europe. Not Wrexham haha.

P.s. A bit lazy to clean up but will do so at some point.

[LTU_btc]

Crystal Palace made big step towards the final. They beat Shakhtar 3:1 on away game. How many seconds it took them to score first goal? 25? Such early goals is something that I can't explain, how you can concede immediately on first attack?
Rayo Vallecano 1:0 Strasbourg. Very boring game to watch with lack of quality, that's all I can say about this game.

[MK-74]

It was a bad night for Shakhtar Donetsk. They lost 3-1 to Crystal Palace, and I honestly expected them to lose. Crystal Palace are a tough opponent, so the result is not surprising.
Shakhtar Donetsk’s chances of reaching the final are probably around 1 percent now. Next week they will play away and need to win by at least a two goal margin. In other words, they need a miracle.

Rayo Vallecano 1-0 RC Strasbourg match ended like this and nothing is decided yet for these two teams. We will find out next week which team advances to the final.

[JiiBs]

Crystal Palace made big step towards the final. They beat Shakhtar 3:1 on away game. How many seconds it took them to score first goal? 25? Such early goals is something that I can't explain, how you can concede immediately on first attack?
Rayo Vallecano 1:0 Strasbourg. Very boring game to watch with lack of quality, that's all I can say about this game.

The Rayo Vallecano 1:0 Strasbourg fixture was an interesting game, it was really competitive and I didn’t expect to find a win in this one. Strasbourg played a lot better for me, they looked more dangerous going forward in the first half although, they just weren’t getting those last touches right. Rayo Vallecano did try to hold some possessions but, they were giving several wrong passes that ends up being intercepted. With the over 8.5 yellow cards in this game, it tells you just how physical the game was but, Rayo Vallecano has being able to take their home advantage to get all the points.

[Ruttoshi]

Crystal Palace made big step towards the final. They beat Shakhtar 3:1 on away game. How many seconds it took them to score first goal? 25? Such early goals is something that I can't explain, how you can concede immediately on first attack?
Rayo Vallecano 1:0 Strasbourg. Very boring game to watch with lack of quality, that's all I can say about this game.

Crystal Palace proved their supremacy over the Ukrainian club as they went to humiliate them at home. Crystal Palace has all the qualities it take to get the trophy this season because they're from England and England teams are always strong in any European competition.

Shakhtar will visit Crystal Palace at home, I hope to see more goals from Palace since the have all the space and flexibility to play with ease. I believe it's a sure win for Palace.

[Adiljutt156]

It was a bad night for Shakhtar Donetsk. They lost 3-1 to Crystal Palace, and I honestly expected them to lose. Crystal Palace are a tough opponent, so the result is not surprising.
Shakhtar Donetsk’s chances of reaching the final are probably around 1 percent now. Next week they will play away and need to win by at least a two goal margin. In other words, they need a miracle.

Rayo Vallecano 1-0 RC Strasbourg match ended like this and nothing is decided yet for these two teams. We will find out next week which team advances to the final.

Today we watched semi final match between Crystal Palace football team and Shakhtar Donetsk football team and that was one sided match because one team gave great effort in this match and that team did 3 goals in this match and opponent team could do only 1 goal in this match. Sarr was a person who did first goal of the match and he did this goal at 1 minute of the match and he gave good start to his team and after that goal another person did goal in this match and he did this goal at 58 minutes of the match and that was important goal because they need to do more goals in this match and they are looking like winner in this match and they easily won this match at the end due to their top quality performance.

[CLS63]

And Shakhtar are out of the Conference League by 5-2 on aggregate. I must say I was disappointed with their performance in the first leg above all.

But I understand as they don't have a great squad for going all in for the championship in this tournament. Crystal Palace are even the biggest contender for it with their much stronger squad. 

I still liked the work Arda Turan has done with his opportunity. I know him from the Turkish league before as a skilled manager.

[Abu-Naim]

And Shakhtar are out of the Conference League by 5-2 on aggregate. I must say I was disappointed with their performance in the first leg above all.

But I understand as they don't have a great squad for going all in for the championship in this tournament. Crystal Palace are even the biggest contender for it with their much stronger squad. 

I still liked the work Arda Turan has done with his opportunity. I know him from the Turkish league before as a skilled manager.

From how they play in the first leg, I gave up, they can compost with Crystal Palace especially as they will use the victory in the conference League final to qualify to the Europa League as they are not around the will qualify to any European competition based on their league position.

Now, the final will be between Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano, I will expect Palace to win the conference league, and another England team Aston Villa to win the Europa League and maybe another English team Arsenal to win the Champions League.

This season, English teams have tried their best to be in the finals of all the top three European competition, this shows how competitive the league is and the premier is the best league in the world.

[Volgastallion]

Im very happy to see Rayo Vallecano in the final of this Conference League they are a very small club and also a team who is in one of the most poorest areas of Madrid so they represent that social strait and they beat one team who is full under the influence of other teams and is part of a much bigger conglomerate of teams so is better to see the normal football winning against the football of the enterprises.

[pawel7777]

It's not much of a surprise that Crystal Palace managed to eliminate Shakhtar and got through to the final, but their performance in the 2nd leg game yesterday could be seen as somewhat disappointing, despite another win. I feel like they could've dominated Shakhtar if they wanted to, but instead they set themselves a little bit too defensively and allowed Shakhtar to take the initiative with 61% ball possession. Palace still got what they wanted, but could have declassed Shakhtar with a much higher win.

As per current odds, Palace are said to be ~60% favourite, which I think is fair. Hopefully Palace would be successful in avoiding relegation before the last game of the Premier League, so they can prioritise Conference League final, which is to be played only 3 days after their last league game against Arsenal.

[Lida93]

Im very happy to see Rayo Vallecano in the final of this Conference League they are a very small club and also a team who is in one of the most poorest areas of Madrid so they represent that social strait and they beat one team who is full under the influence of other teams and is part of a much bigger conglomerate of teams so is better to see the normal football winning against the football of the enterprises.

It's very nice to see such a low rated team like Rayo Vallecano that isn't even considered a big team in the Spanish La'liga to have even made it this far, this is something really special for Spanish football seeing that they could make it to the finals of this competition in a season where the elite Spanish teams didn't perform as good as a lot of people would have anticipated, and this could be even more better if they could go all the way to win it and make history with this small club from Spain.

[MorganaX]

Im very happy to see Rayo Vallecano in the final of this Conference League they are a very small club and also a team who is in one of the most poorest areas of Madrid so they represent that social strait and they beat one team who is full under the influence of other teams and is part of a much bigger conglomerate of teams so is better to see the normal football winning against the football of the enterprises.

It's very nice to see such a low rated team like Rayo Vallecano that isn't even considered a big team in the Spanish La'liga to have even made it this far, this is something really special for Spanish football seeing that they could make it to the finals of this competition in a season where the elite Spanish teams didn't perform as good as a lot of people would have anticipated, and this could be even more better if they could go all the way to win it and make history with this small club from Spain.

Before they made it to the competition in the first place shows that they have really improved although I have not followed up the team but I know for a certain that they have upgraded just like the way Girona once did in their last season campaign but currently they have fell short so badly that I hardly notice or see any upset that they have gotten in the league but as for Rayo vallecano, they worth and deserve everything they are currently enjoying and hopefully they get to seal it off with a big victory at the finals too.

[LTU_btc]

Im very happy to see Rayo Vallecano in the final of this Conference League they are a very small club and also a team who is in one of the most poorest areas of Madrid so they represent that social strait and they beat one team who is full under the influence of other teams and is part of a much bigger conglomerate of teams so is better to see the normal football winning against the football of the enterprises.

I'm also happy for Rayo. As you say, it's small club with worst stadium in league. Even if it's club from Spain, they weren't favorites, unlike Crystal Palace, Fiorentina or Strasbourg. I want to see another fairytale of underdogs. Yeah, they won't be favorites in the final, but I want to see history being made. Rayo in their history haven't won any titles. They won 2nd and 3rd division multiple times, but it's not trophies.

[Silikiem]

Im very happy to see Rayo Vallecano in the final of this Conference League they are a very small club and also a team who is in one of the most poorest areas of Madrid so they represent that social strait and they beat one team who is full under the influence of other teams and is part of a much bigger conglomerate of teams so is better to see the normal football winning against the football of the enterprises.

It's very nice to see such a low rated team like Rayo Vallecano that isn't even considered a big team in the Spanish La'liga to have even made it this far, this is something really special for Spanish football seeing that they could make it to the finals of this competition in a season where the elite Spanish teams didn't perform as good as a lot of people would have anticipated, and this could be even more better if they could go all the way to win it and make history with this small club from Spain.

Honestly no one saw Rayo coming and even if someone have predicted earlier that Rayo will make it to the quarter finals or semi finals of this competition no one would have taken it seriously, and I’m sure even the entire Rayo vallecanos team didn’t know they will reach this far when the competition started but this is just one exciting thing about football which distinguishes it from every other sport. Hopefully they will fight it all in the finals with crystal palace and I don’t see them getting it easily against this English side. For me, win or lose, Rayo have already have a spectacular season in this competition and I’m sure they will be very proud of themselves and if they cap it off with winning the trophy then its simply a spectacular season for them.

[Issa56]

And Shakhtar are out of the Conference League by 5-2 on aggregate. I must say I was disappointed with their performance in the first leg above all.

After the first leg was played, i already knew they going to defeat Shakhtar in the second leg of the match. They didn’t play well in the first leg of the match, and they allowed crystal palace score 3 goals in the first leg of the match, and they were able to score just 1 goal in the first leg. I was just expecting crystal palace to play a defensive game in the second leg of the match, all what crystal palace will want to get is a draw, and they won the second leg of the match also, they scored 2 goals in the second leg of the match, which at the end the aggregate is now 5-2.

But I understand as they don't have a great squad for going all in for the championship in this tournament. Crystal Palace are even the biggest contender for it with their much stronger squad.  :p

The final will between crystal palace and Rayo vallecano in the conference league final, Crystal palace have a better squad than their opponents, I don’t really know much about their opponents, but they not so strong, I feel crystal palace is having higher chances of winning the conference league this season.

[Rgram]

Im very happy to see Rayo Vallecano in the final of this Conference League they are a very small club and also a team who is in one of the most poorest areas of Madrid so they represent that social strait and they beat one team who is full under the influence of other teams and is part of a much bigger conglomerate of teams so is better to see the normal football winning against the football of the enterprises.

Rayo Vallecano did put up a good performance yesterday. Winning both home and away against a good side from ligue 1 like Strasbourg was not an easy to do thing and somehow, they managed to control the entire game even while playing at the Stade De La Meinau in ligue 1. The defining moment came when they had an a penalty and Enciso stepped up to take the spot kick and it got saved by the goalkeeper, he got a second trier from the save and the keeper once again with his quick reaction was back on his feet for a second save. Strasbourg didn’t have a say in yesterday’s game and Rayo Vallecano had to advance.

[Sammye3]

Im very happy to see Rayo Vallecano in the final of this Conference League they are a very small club and also a team who is in one of the most poorest areas of Madrid so they represent that social strait and they beat one team who is full under the influence of other teams and is part of a much bigger conglomerate of teams so is better to see the normal football winning against the football of the enterprises.

Congrats to them, but they will be facing Premier League side, Crystal Palace, congrats to them for reaching this stage of the competition, so many things were dropped along the line but they managed to get here, but too bad knowing that Crystal Palace will become the fashion against them, Crystal Palace will be taking the final glory when they meet in the final, Crystal Palace are a strong team to play in a final, seeing how they mean it, makes me believe in them.

[Amphenomenon]

And Shakhtar are out of the Conference League by 5-2 on aggregate. I must say I was disappointed with their performance in the first leg above all.

After the first leg was played, i already knew they going to defeat Shakhtar in the second leg of the match. They didn’t play well in the first leg of the match, and they allowed crystal palace score 3 goals in the first leg of the match, and they were able to score just 1 goal in the first leg. I was just expecting crystal palace to play a defensive game in the second leg of the match, all what crystal palace will want to get is a draw, and they won the second leg of the match also, they scored 2 goals in the second leg of the match, which at the end the aggregate is now 5-2.

I'm not surprised Crystal Palace didn't try to play a defensive game against Shakthar Donetsk, after all they are currently more solid than them.

I expected them to make it to the final and win it. Now that they have gotten to the final which was expected since the beginning of the tournament from many including me especially since they started the well but in their current form things became questionable, let's see if they can get it in the end.

[Frankolala]

And Shakhtar are out of the Conference League by 5-2 on aggregate. I must say I was disappointed with their performance in the first leg above all.

After the first leg was played, i already knew they going to defeat Shakhtar in the second leg of the match. They didn’t play well in the first leg of the match, and they allowed crystal palace score 3 goals in the first leg of the match, and they were able to score just 1 goal in the first leg. I was just expecting crystal palace to play a defensive game in the second leg of the match, all what crystal palace will want to get is a draw, and they won the second leg of the match also, they scored 2 goals in the second leg of the match, which at the end the aggregate is now 5-2.

I'm not surprised Crystal Palace didn't try to play a defensive game against Shakthar Donetsk, after all they are currently more solid than them.

I expected them to make it to the final and win it. Now that they have gotten to the final which was expected since the beginning of the tournament from many including me especially since they started the well but in their current form things became questionable, let's see if they can get it in the end.

English teams do have an edge over teams that are not from England. This gives me more confidence on Palace that they will be able to win Rayo in the finals. Crystal Palace doesn't need to play a defensive game against Shakhtar because they have tested their strengths in the first leg. If they play a defensive game that will give Shakhtar enough space to attack them aggressively and put Palace defense on pressure.