Palace 'ready to make history' - how far can they progress?

Crystal Palace got the job done - and now their fans can start to dream.

A goalless draw at Fredrikstad gave them a 1-0 aggregate win in the Conference League play-off and a place in the league phase.

On manager Oliver Glasner's 51st birthday too.

Some time after 12:00 BST on Friday they will find out which six teams stand between them and a place in the knockout rounds.

And there is a real feeling Palace - on a joint club-record 13-game unbeaten run - can be contenders to win it, having been demoted to the competition from the Europa League for breaching multi-club ownership rules.

This has already been the most successful year in their history, winning the FA Cup final against Manchester City and the Community Shield against Liverpool.

"It is a huge achievement to go into the group stage," Glasner told Channel 5.

"It was our second goal of the season and we have achieved that by the end of August which is great.

"The first one was winning the Community Shield - which we did - and now, with all of the noise of being demoted to the Conference League, we have done that too."

BBC Sport looks at Palace's chances in their first ever European campaign - but some of the potential pitfalls.

The beauty of the third-tier Conference League is it enables team from smaller countries to compete in the group stages - and allow teams that don't win many trophies to succeed.

And Chelsea.

Until the Blues steamrolled everyone last season to win the Conference League, the previous winners had been Roma, West Ham and Olympiakos.

Roma ended a 14-year trophy drought, while it was 43 years for West Ham - and a Greek club had never won a European trophy before Olympiakos.

So it is far from inconceivable that a team like Crystal Palace could lift it this time.

The top seven countries in Uefa's rankings only had one team each in it.

They are Palace, Fiorentina, Rayo Vallecano, Mainz, Strasbourg, AZ Alkmaar - and Santa Clara, who lost to Shamrock Rovers so are out.

And, having won the FA Cup in May, the Eagles actually have better recent pedigree than any of those other teams.

Since 2002, of those teams, only Strasbourg (two French League Cups) and AZ (one Dutch title and one Dutch Cup) have won anything.

Palace defender Chris Richards said: "Everybody is super excited. We are an ambitious club, and now is time to win some games in Europe. We are ready to make history."

Boss Glasner won the Europa League with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2021-22.

Former Palace striker Glenn Murray, speaking on Channel 5, added: "Oliver Glasner has done it at the European level. To have him in charge, they have a special talent there.

"I feel as though they will navigate it, and they will weigh the balance of the Premier League and Europe. Hopefully they can reach the later stages."

Ex-England defender Matt Upson, who had a brief loan spell at Palace in 2001, said: "They have shown they can navigate cup competitions.

"They have a manager who is very pragmatic and knows how to get there, which gives them every chance."

Palace will play six teams in the league phase, three home and three away.

That is one team from each pot - with the seedings not confirmed yet - meaning they cannot play many of their rivals to win the tournament.

But Scottish side Aberdeen and Dublin clubs Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers are potential opponents.

The top eight teams from the 36-team league phase go into the last 16, with the teams finishing ninth to 24th going into a knockout phase play-off round.

West Ham and Chelsea both won all six games in the group or league phase on their way to lifting the trophy.

But Glasner will not be watching the draw.

"We will watch Aston Villa to be prepared [for Sunday's Premier League match] so I think someone will tell me who the opposition teams are," he said.

"It is not important to me because we start [the Conference League] on 2 October and now Villa is on my mind."

Palace would have hoped to have built on the squad that won the FA Cup last season.

But right now they are actually weaker.

Only three of their subs against Fredrikstad have started more than one Premier League game.

Their bench had eight, to FFK's 12, and two of those were goalkeepers.

Star forward Eberechi Eze left this summer for Arsenal in a £60m deal.

And captain Marc Guehi, who played in both of the Conference League qualifiers, remains a target for Liverpool.

Chairman Steve Parish recently said they would sell the England defender to get a fee as he is out of contract next summer.

After their first-leg victory, Glasner said they had to keep Guehi for at least the game in Norway.

"There is no other chance than keeping Marc for these games. He knows it, everybody knows it," he added.

But those games are over now.

Palace have only spent about £3m on Ajax left wing-back Borna Sosa, while back-up keeper Walter Benitez joined on a free transfer from PSV.

There have been more than 20 Championship signings this summer for £3m or more.

The transfer deadline is on Monday at 19:00 BST - and Palace have work to do if they are to manage a regular schedule of Thursday and Sunday fixtures this season.

But that work is under way.

Palace are, though, closing in on the £26m signing of Villarreal winger Yeremy Pino and have also made a move for Manchester City defender Manuel Akanji.

Get them and some more in and they might fancy their chances of European glory.

The feeling still remains, though, that Palace should not be here at all.

By winning the FA Cup, they should have gone straight into the Europa League group stage.

But Uefa's multi-club ownership rules, surrounding former Palace co-owner John Textor, meant they were bumped down to the Conference League play-off round instead.

They had to accept their fate after a long drawn-out dispute involving Nottingham Forest, who were handed the Europa League spot instead, Uefa, the Court of Arbitration for Sport - and which division Lyon were going to be in.

French side Lyon, who Textor also owned, had also qualified for the Europa League and were allowed in because they finished higher in their league than Palace. They had also been demoted to Ligue 2 over the poor state of their finances, but got their top-flight place back on appeal, and left Palace doomed.