Glasner: FA Cup final not on my mind – never make step two before step one

Potentially just 90 minutes separates Crystal Palace from their second FA Cup final in 10 seasons.

But Oliver Glasner has not allowed himself to even begin to consider that possibility.

“Never make step two before you make step one,” he says, speaking to Sky Sports on a warm afternoon at the club’s training ground in Beckenham.

It is a wise mantra and one particularly pertinent given the importance of this week to the Eagles.

On Wednesday night, they played Arsenal in the Premier League, four days before the FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa – Champions League semi-finalists and quarter-finalists respectively.

“It’s our Champions League week,” he said in his press conference prior to the trip to the Emirates.

The mantra is a less cliched version of the staple “we’re only focused on the next game” phrase of the modern manager but one experience has firmed up for Glasner over the last 14 months.

His side won six of their last seven Premier League games to finish 10th last season, having been just five points clear of the relegation zone when he arrived at Selhurst Park last February to replace Roy Hodgson. It was only their second top-half finish in 15 seasons in the division and morale rose through the roof as a result.

Naturally, so did expectations. So when Palace won just one of their first 13 Premier League games this term, the pressure appeared to be on.

But the Austrian has managed to turn the tide, just as he did upon arrival. His side reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup for the first time in 14 seasons and a top-half finish is still a possibility, as is a new record points total of 50, which is now just five points away.

He knows it is about living in the moment, striking the right balance.

“The positive mood around the club is always when you are successful and we turned the season after the terrible start,” he says.

“Everybody is looking forward to the cup semi-final at Wembley and, regarding the points, we’re still able to play the best season for Crystal Palace in history. I’ve said to the players, ‘if we’re not in a great mood now, when?’

“This is what we want to enjoy now until the end of the season, but we also know it’s a lot of work to do and it’s a lot of effort, a lot of commitment and the players show it every day. We can achieve so much and this releases so much positive energy.

“Now it’s about preparing in the best way for Aston Villa. All of their players are fit for the crunch time and they played an unbelievably extraordinary game against PSG at home. It will be a very challenging semi-final.

“When you play a game at the beginning of the FA Cup, the goal of winning it is far away. Now we are in the semi-final, every team wants to go to the final and win this trophy.

“We’ve already had to win four games, all of the four teams did it, so everyone will play with 100 per cent effort. In a semi-final, it’s all or nothing.”

Palace were motoring up to the end of March, having started 2025 with 10 wins in 13 games across the Premier League and FA Cup. They scored 25 goals, conceded seven and kept eight clean sheets. There was little stopping them.

But even though they beat Fulham 3-0 in the quarter-final on March 29, Glasner said his side were “rusty” after a three-week gap between competitive games.

There has been a slight dip in form since then, with just six points from the last six Premier League games, the last four of which have come across a manic 11-day period. It has not been ideal going into such a pivotal game – not just in the season but the club’s history.

“The last weeks didn’t feel so fluid like before,” Glasner adds.

“We had the postponed Newcastle game, three weeks no game, then players away with their national teams. Then players being suspended – Chris Richards, Marc Guehi. Then players being sick and not available.

“On the other side, we have to accept it because we have one win, two draws and two defeats, but these (defeats) were away at Man City and Newcastle.

“We don’t want to lose a game but it can happen, especially when you play the top teams in the Premier League.

“If you look, maybe in the last 10 games, we are still in the top third of the league. It’s a moment we have to deal with, it’s a moment that we don’t lose the belief in what we are doing, we don’t lose the belief in our group, we don’t lose the belief in ourselves.

“Then we can get the turnaround. For me, the second half against Bournemouth, playing with one man less, showed we are able to get this turnaround.”

Saturday’s game – Glasner’s first Wembley experience – presents the Austrian and his staff with the chance to reach another final.

In 2021/22, his Eintracht Frankfurt side reached the Europa League final, where they beat Rangers in Seville, and in 2022/23, they reached the German Cup final, where they finished as runners-up to RB Leipzig.

The incredible value of such experiences is not lost on him.

“I will never forget where I’m coming from. Behind us here is a school yard where children are playing, and we hear them laughing and having fun, playing football. I sometimes tell the players we should never forget, many years ago, we were these kids and our dream was to train here and be a professional football player.

“This is the same. Playing a game at Wembley in front of 90,000 fans is just what you are dreaming of as a child. We are all in this privileged situation that we live it, we can experience it.

“It’s worth always giving your best every single game. On the other side, every fan deserves it because they pay the money to see the team and the least they can demand is that everybody gives 100 per cent effort.

“We are all human beings, we all have ups and downs. But having 100 per cent effort, 100 per cent commitment, this is what everybody can demand from us – and this is what I think we show in every single game, even when we are losing sometimes.

“You have to deserve it, and there is so much work and effort from every single player, from every single one of the staff, and then you get this reward with these games. It makes it more worth it to win these games, because then you have the positive emotions, feelings and memories forever. This is what we will go for. Winning is the best.”

Come Saturday evening, whether it is in the FA Cup or the Premier League – or both – Crystal Palace still have history to write.