JAYDEE CANVOT’S blunder blew away Crystal Palace’s perfect Conference League start.
South London had avoided the worst of Storm Benjamin and should have breezed past the fifth-best team in Cyprus.
But the French teenage defender gift-wrapped a blind pass and AEK Larnaca punished him and the toothless Eagles in what was, on paper at least, their gentlest challenge of four matches in nine days – including trips to the Emirates and Anfield.
On the first night of ‘proper’ European football at Selhurst Park, the Eagles were welcomed on to the field with a tifo reading: “We are the boys who will win your little game.”
Ominously, though, the winds from the remnant of the storm tore the banner – before Riad Bajic’s ripper proved the only goal.
Opposing striker Jean-Philippe Mateta himself should have ripped the back of the net when Zlatan Alomerovic let his famous namesake down with a calamitous error on 21 minutes.
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He parried a harmless Daniel Munoz cross and Mateta, fresh from his hat-trick and 99th-minute sitter against Bournemouth, bundled the ball down into the ground and off the top of the crossbar.
Forget warning signs, that was as dangerous as it got for the Cypriot visitors in their fluorescent yellow and green jerseys, cheered on by 750 travelling fans.
Mateta went close in injury time for a drab first half but flashed beyond the far top corner while leaning back and struggling to keep his balance.
Then right before the whistle, he glanced a header just past the post as another chance went begging for the Frenchman hoping to make France’s World Cup squad with Kylian Mbappe et al.
Oliver Glasner clearly fired a rocket in the home dressing room at half-time after a lacklustre opening 45 and Maxence Lacroix headed just wide soon after the restart.
But on 51 minutes, Larnaca blasted themselves in front.
Canvot’s misplaced backwards pass picked out Marcus Rohden.
He teed up Bajic and the Bosnia international powered a brilliant first-time effort into the top corner beyond Dean Henderson.
Canvot was given no time to make amends for his blunder, hooked on the hour mark for striker Eddie Nketiah as Glasner, in need of a spark, changed the shape.
It was Mateta who went closest to an equaliser initially, though, but was somehow denied at point-blank range by Alomerovic, much more like the real Zlatan, who then clawed out a sub Daichi Kamada corner from sailing straight in.
Daniel Munoz was thwarted and Nketiah headed wide on the dive.
And the ex-Arsenal man, overlooked for a starting spot again, was guilty of wasting Palace’s best chance to draw level, taking an air shot at a bouncing ball from close chance.
In injury time, Marc Guehi’s cross from deep somehow evaded Romain Esse and Kamada at the back post then the Japanese midfielder’s desperate pleas for a penalty were waved away.
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On a frustrating night, Palace huffed and puffed, but could not blow the Larnaca wall down.
The referee’s full-time whistle sparked wild scenes among Larnaca’s heroes, coaches and fans – the Cypriot Cup champions had beaten the FA Cup winners.
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