Crystal Palace 3-1 AZ: Sarr stars in routine home win

Ismaila Sarr scored twice as Crystal Palace returned to winning ways in the Conference League after Thursday's 3-1 victory over AZ at Selhurst Park.

Oliver Glasner's side suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat at home to Larnaca last time out in the competition, but they had no such difficulty this time.

Maxence Lacroix got on the end of Marc Guehi's cushioned header to fire a right-footed strike into the bottom-left corner for the 22nd-minute opener.

The centre-back's fine finish was in stark contrast to Jean-Philippe Mateta's penalty five minutes earlier, which was saved by Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro, who had felled Sarr to concede the spot-kick.

Sarr doubled Palace's lead on the stroke of half-time, pouncing from point-blank range after AZ failed to deal with a set-piece delivery.

AZ pulled a goal back after an attempt by captain Sven Mijnans deflected to wrong-foot Dean Henderson, teeing up what could have been an entertaining clash in the 54th minute.

But Palace forward Sarr added his second, and the hosts' third, three minutes later after being released by Mateta and coolly rolling past Owusu-Oduro, sealing the victory.

The win lifts Palace to eighth, while AZ are 27th after a second defeat in three European games.

Data Debrief: AZ's English struggles persist

AZ have now lost on each of their 11 trips to England in major European competition, conceding 31 goals in total.

In fact, AZ are winless across their last 13 away games in major European competitions (D2 L10), conceding multiple goals in 12 of those 13 matches.

Palace were fully deserving of the three points, having accumulated 3.81 expected goals (xG) to AZ's 1.18.