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Crystal Palace's Oliver Glasner: 'Huge desire' to reach Conference League final

Oliver Glasner has said there is "huge desire" among Crystal Palace's squad ahead of the club's Conference League semifinal against Shakhtar Donetsk.

Palace face Ukrainian outfit Shakhtar in Krakow, Poland, on Thursday evening before completing the two-legged tie at Selhurst Park next week.

Spanish side Rayo Vallecano take on French club Strasbourg in the other semifinal clash.

"The closer you come, the more you want it," Glasner told a news conference when asked about the possibility of lifting more silverware following last season's FA Cup triumph.

"When you play a semifinal, it makes sense: I want to play the final because nobody will say it's fine playing a semifinal and losing. That's why we are here.

"This is the goal. If we can achieve it, I don't know, because all the teams in the competition right now deserve to be there and always won, but then let's see.

"What we really try to avoid is talking about winning something. We try to focus on what we have to do on the pitch to get the best possible result.

"At the end, you always get what you deserve. We have huge desire, we have the confidence and the belief we can win against Shakhtar, but we always have huge respect for the way they play."

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Glasner is chasing the second European trophy of his managerial career, having guided Eintracht Frankfurt to Europa League glory in 2022.

"The message [to the players] is be yourself, play our style, express yourself, play with confidence, try to score goals, work very hard to avoid chances for the opposition, but the most important thing is play our style," said the Austrian.

"We are where we are because we created our identity, our personality, so it would be complete nonsense if we changed it now.

"We say 'OK, we play our way', and then it's sports -- you can lose or win -- but if you don't show your identity, you can lose twice, and this is what we never want."