Kamada rescues 10-man Palace late on

Hoffenheim led for long stretches and, by any reasonable measure, should have taken all three points. The Bundesliga side scored and spent long periods camped in Palace territory, probing for a second that would have put the tie beyond doubt. Then, with 13 minutes to go, Adam Wharton saw red, leaving Palace to see out the closing stages a man light.

It never got worse than that, and that's largely down to a backline and midfield that refused to fold even as the game stretched late. Palace absorbed what Hoffenheim threw at them, and by the time stoppage time arrived, most inside the ground had the home side down as winners.

Kamada's moment

Then Kamada popped up with the equaliser deep into stoppage time, the sort of goal that turns a damaging European night into a point salvaged against the run of play. The Japan international hasn't been a prolific scorer for Palace this season, with his value coming mostly from work off the ball rather than end product. This was the opposite of that profile, and it couldn't have landed at a better time.

Glasner's side were already being outplayed before Wharton's dismissal complicated things further, and the manager will know how close this came to being a defeat that would have hurt Palace's standing in their Europa League group. Instead, a point from a game they were losing for most of the night, and playing the closing stages with ten men, counts as a result they'll happily bank.

What it means

Palace sit 14th in the Premier League with seven points from seven games, a domestic campaign that has already shown cracks, and a European night like this one, outplayed for long periods, reduced in numbers late, rescued at the death, fits the pattern of a side finding ways to survive rather than control games. The draw keeps their Europa League hopes alive rather than advancing them, but against a Hoffenheim team who dominated large parts of the match, that's about as much as could have been asked for.

Kamada's late intervention won't fix the underlying issues Glasner is wrestling with, but it bought Palace another matchday without a damaging loss attached to Wharton's red card. In a group stage where points are precious, that's the difference between a bad night and a disastrous one.