Crawley and Crystal Palace will meet at Broadfield Stadium in a pre-season friendly again on Friday night, having also played against each other in the previous two campaigns.
Unsurprisingly, Palace were victorious in both of those games, winning by emphatic 6-3 and 4-0 scorelines respectively. The Eagles also kicked off their new pre-season campaign with a 1-0 win against Millwall last time out, which stretched their impressive unbeaten run in all competitions to nine matches stretching back to the end of the 2025/26 campaign.
Crawley have been impressive in pre-season themselves though, winning four of their friendlies and scoring a total of 16 goals in the process.
The League Two side will come up against far superior opposition in Palace though, with the Premier League team still on a high after winning their first trophy in their entire history after winning the FA Cup at the expense of Manchester City. Nonetheless, it will no doubt be interesting to see how this clash pans out.
How the bookies view it: No odds currently available at time of writing
At the time of writing, there are no odds currently available for the game. We would expect Palace to be favourites to win, with Crawley very much the outsiders.
Recent head-to-head: Palace win nine-goal thriller
In the pre-season friendly last year, Palace won 6-3 in what was a crazy game of football. Both Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi grabbed braces for each side, while Odsonne Edouard also recorded a noteworthy goal and two assists.
Players to watch: Eze to make return?
Jack Roles netted for Crawley in a 2-1 defeat to Southampton in a pre-season friendly last time out, and will be hoping to have a similar impact here.
All eyes will be on Eberechi Eze as he made his return to Palace, and the England international midfielder has been particularly impressive in training ahead of this match.
Predicted lineups
Crawley have no fresh injury concerns and so are likely to field a similar XI to the ones that they have been playing in pre-season so far.
Both Chadi Riad and Cheick Doucoure will be missing for Palace with injury, but they could call on the likes of Eze, Dean Henderson and Daichi Kamada from the start, having missed their win against Millwall last time out.
Crawley: Davies, Barker, Anderson, Roles, McKirdy, Flower, Radcliffe, Adeyemo, Papadopoulos, Watson, Tshimanga.
Crystal Palace: Henderson, Mitchell, Clyne, Lacroix, Guehi, Sosa, Wharton, Hughes, Kamada, Eze, Mateta.
Anything else catch the eye?
Given the amount of goals in the last H2H and in meetings before that, we are expecting plenty of goals once again. Could Eze mark his return with a goal? We would certainly not back against him.
Palace should not have it entirely their own way though, as Crawley have found the back of the net in each of their previous six pre-season friendlies. Backing Both Teams To Score (BTTS) could also be a viable option in this sense, with the League Two side perhaps not expected to get on the scoresheet against the Premier League outfit.
GambleAware