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Manchester City were beaten at Wembley by Crystal Palace<\/p>\nLyon could keep Crystal Palace out of the Europa League after their relegation was cancelled, and both developments could help Manchester CityManchester City were beaten at Wembley by Crystal Palace<\/p>\n
One of the great themes in English football last season was the rise of the underdog. Newcastle won their first trophy in 56 years, Crystal Palace won the FA Cup<\/a> for the first time in their history and Liverpool<\/a> won the Premier League<\/a> (that last one is a joke before the inevitable abuse arrives).<\/p>\n The Geordies must have thought nothing would top their Wembley celebrations after they bested Liverpool in the league cup<\/a> final, only for Oliver Glasner’s Palace to turn up in May and down City<\/a>. Tens of thousands of Blues were even willing to look past<\/a> the blatant error around Dean Henderson’s handball to be happy for all those Palace fans experiencing the joy of that trophy for the first time.<\/p>\n Palace’s win should have qualified them for the Europa League<\/a>, except you can’t even have straightforward positive stories in the game these days. Some murky multi-club ownership (that’s another joke) saw the South London club hauled over the coals of UEFA justice and then the Court of Arbitration for Sport to decide whether or not they can have what they deserve or not.<\/p>\n The upshot, as a result of Palace co-owner John Textor also being involved in Lyon and Lyon having also qualified for the Europa League by virtue of league position and also now having seen their relegation cancelled after they were initially relegated for financial issues, is that Palace look resigned to being demoted to the Europa Conference League.<\/p>\n Confused? You should be.<\/p>\n It looks like a mess, but out of it City could benefit from both decisions if they go as expected. The first cannot be changed, with Lyon definitely avoiding relegation and playing Europa League football this season.<\/p>\n Before their shock drop the French club had been looking at loaning a City player for the campaign, having sold Rayan Cherki at a reasonable price earlier in the summer. Such a move is not guaranteed but the prospect of a season in Ligue 1 – home of the Champions League<\/a> winners and possible Club World Cup winners, no less – with European football on top of it is an excellent destination for one of City’s rising prospects.<\/p>\n If Palace are to be relegated to the Conference League, the English team that would take their place in the Europa would be Nottingham Forest by virtue of having finished in seventh place in the Premier League. They have a longstanding interest in City’s James McAtee, who is available this summer, and a bump up for the club would make them an even more attractive option.<\/p>\n It would be a bitter blow for Palace after Lyon’s dramatic reprieve and doesn’t appear to be fair on Glasner’s team, but UEFA’s decisions around those clubs this summer could indirectly end up benefitting City.<\/p>\n Kevin de Bruyne – special edition ON SALE NOW<\/p>\n Kevin de Bruyne is one of – if not the – greatest players to play for Manchester City.<\/p>\n He leaves the club having won six Premier League titles, two FA Cups, five League Cups and a memorable Champions League victory!<\/p>\n To mark his amazing time at the Etihad Stadium, this special edition has been produced – KDB The King – to celebrate Kev’s career with the Blues. We look back at his 10 best games in Blue, celebrate his title wins and hear from the City boss and a host of team-mates and football elite who give their views on what makes him so special.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO BUY<\/a><\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Here at the Manchester Evening News, we\u2019re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester City<\/a> coverage and analysis.<\/p>\n Make sure you don\u2019t miss out on the latest City news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here<\/a><\/strong> to subscribe.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here<\/a><\/strong> to be sent all the day\u2019s biggest stories.<\/p>\n And finally, if you\u2019d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Talking City podcast. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify<\/a><\/strong> and Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/strong>, and you can also watch along on YouTube<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lyon could keep Crystal Palace out of the Europa League after their relegation was cancelled, and both developments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,1036,2398,1037,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-258467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-city-fc","13":"tag-manchester-city-transfer-news","14":"tag-pep-guardiola","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114839342625827053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752309212_427_0_ThekingJPG.jpg\")
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