Strasbourg have kept six clean sheets in eight home matches this season
Crystal Palace have only conceded once across their last five games
Recommended bet: Under 2.5 goals
Strasbourg and Crystal Palace are two of the favourites to go on and win the Conference League this season, making Thursday's league phase clash at the Stade de la Meinau stand out as a key contest.
Palace have recorded wins over Dynamo Kyiv and AZ Alkmaar either side of a surprise home loss to AEK Larnaca to sit ninth in the standings, two places and one point behind Strasbourg in seventh, but crucially outside the top eight which would secure an automatic route through to the round of 16.
The latest Strasbourg vs Crystal Palace odds are available on LiveScore Bet
Team news
Strasbourg could be missing as many as five players for this European clash, with Abdoul Ouattara (hamstring), Saidou Sow (knee), Maxi Oyedele (muscle), Karl-Johan Johnsson (wrist fracture) and Abakar Sylla (unspecified) all expected to miss out.
Cheick Doucoure (knee) and Caleb Kporha (back) remain long-term absentees for Palace, although Chadi Riad and Rio Cardines are both closing in on returns from their respective knee and groin issues.
Defenders Marc Guehi and Chris Richards have also been nursing knocks of late and may not be risked, putting Jaydee Canvot and Jefferson Lerma on standby to come into the starting XI.
The latest Strasbourg vs Crystal Palace odds are available on LiveScore Bet
The stats
This will be the first time Strasbourg and Crystal Palace have ever met in a competitive fixture.
Strasbourg last faced off against Premier League opponents in 1997, but they will have fond memories of that encounter, as they knocked Liverpool out of the UEFA Cup.
Le Racing have only lost one of their eight home matches across all competitions this season.
Palace are unbeaten in five matches, recording four wins and a draw in that period.
Oliver Glasner’s side have failed to score in just one of their last seven away games.
The latest Strasbourg vs Crystal Palace odds are available on LiveScore Bet
Prediction
This always looked like being Palace's toughest test of the league phase and Strasbourg, who sit fifth in Ligue 1 and have been impressing under south-London born head coach Liam Rosenior, will want to protect their strong home record.
Le Racing have lost only once at the Stade de la Meinau all season and have conceded just three goals in eight games on their own patch.
They also score regularly, netting in each of their last seven matches on home soil, although they have notched more than once in just three of those games and they may struggle to break down a resilient Palace with too much regularity.
Palace have conceded just twice in five matches in this season's Conference League (including qualifying) and they also boast the second-best defensive record in the Premier League, letting in just nine goals in that competition, a tally only bettered by leaders Arsenal.
Five of Palace's last seven games have gone under the 2.5-goal mark and the same is true in each of Strasbourg's last two fixtures.
That all suggests that Thursday's meeting could be low scoring and that is before factoring in that a draw might not be a bad result for either side, with winnable games to come.
If both teams do adopt a handbrake-on approach, then this could end up being a cagey and closely fought contest.
Back under 2.5 goals at 17/20 with LiveScore Bet
The latest Strasbourg vs Crystal Palace odds are available on LiveScore Bet
