By OkayGoal
Jean-Philippe Mateta will sit out Crystal Palace’s next three Premier League games, but his red card at Tottenham does not stop him leading the line against Hoffenheim at Selhurst Park on Thursday.
That is the one bit of good news Crystal Palace have taken out of a bruising week. The Conference League holders are 18th in the Premier League with seven points from nine games, they lost 2-0 at Tottenham after Mateta was sent off in the 12th minute, and Liverpool are at Selhurst on Sunday.
Europe has been kinder. Palace have four points from three Europa League games and sit 15th in the 36-team table, inside the play-off places. Hoffenheim are 23rd with three points, one place above the cut, so a defeat would leave Christian Ilzer’s side looking over their shoulder with four games to go.
Both clubs have already met Lyon and Besiktas in this competition, and the results point in different directions. Palace lost 3-2 in Lyon and drew 2-2 in Istanbul. Hoffenheim lost 3-2 at home to Besiktas, then beat Lyon 3-0 a week later.
Crystal Palace vs Hoffenheim kick-off time and venue
Date: Thursday 5 November 2026
Kick-off: 5.45pm UK time
Venue: Selhurst Park, London
Competition: UEFA Europa League, league phase, matchday four
Who is refereeing?
Romanian referee Horațiu Feșnic takes charge, with compatriots Valentin Avram and Alexandru Cerei as his assistants and George Catalin Roman as fourth official. Cătălin Popa is on VAR, helped by Spain’s Guillermo Cuadra Fernandez.
Crystal Palace vs Hoffenheim team news
Crystal Palace
Mateta was shown a straight red for serious foul play after a VAR review of his stretching challenge on Micky van de Ven. Pierre Sage called it “a normal red card” and said his striker “didn’t see the player when he tackled”. The three-match ban is a domestic one, so the Frenchman is available for Thursday and is likely to start, with Sunday’s visit of Liverpool already off his calendar.
Ismaïla Sarr, last season’s top scorer, is out with a groin problem. Sage said before the Spurs game that he expects him back after the international break. Jorgen Strand Larsen twisted his ankle against Besiktas and was not in the squad at Tottenham, while Chadi Riad (knee), Takehiro Tomiyasu (calf) and Quinten Timber (thigh) were all still sidelined last week.
Dean Henderson is back in goal after nine games out with an ankle injury, and made several big saves on Saturday. Eddie Nketiah, who scored the only goal in the Carabao Cup win at Fulham, is pushing for a start, and Anan Khalaili came off the bench at Spurs.
Hoffenheim
Nathan De Cat, Albian Hajdari and Patrick Wimmer were all injured before last week’s cup tie at Holstein Kiel. Tim Lemperle missed the 3-0 win over Leverkusen with a thigh problem but came off the bench in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Werder Bremen, so he is back in contention.
Ilzer rotated heavily for that game in Bremen, making six changes from the side knocked out of the DFB-Pokal on penalties by the second-tier club. Expect Andrej Kramarić, Fisnik Asllani, Oliver Baumann and Ozan Kabak to start again, with more of the regulars back around them.
Can Palace hold the ball this time?
Sage was honest after Tottenham. Down to ten men, Palace defended deep and kept giving the ball straight back. “In this way, it was impossible to exist in this kind of game,” he said, adding that he does not like giving the initiative to the opponent and wants his side to “master the ball more”.
That is the test on Thursday. With eleven men and a home crowd, Palace should be able to play the way Sage wants: wing-backs high, Adam Wharton and Daichi Kamada running the middle, Yéremy Pino and Dwight McNeil between the lines and Mateta as the reference point. Sage has praised McNeil for playing as a ten, a nine and in midfield inside half an hour at Fulham, and that flexibility matters with Sarr missing.
Hoffenheim are a strange side to read. They lost six of seven games in all competitions at one stage, then won three in a row, beating Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1, Lyon 3-0 and Leverkusen 3-0. Since then they have gone out of the cup at Kiel and lost at Bremen, and they sit 12th in the Bundesliga with nine points from eight games. In Bremen their expected goals (0.86) was close to the hosts’ (0.94); they just could not beat Karl Hein.
Kramarić is still the focal point, and Adam Daghim’s pace is their best outlet. He was the quickest player on the pitch at the Weserstadion. Palace’s back three will need to be tight to their men, because Lyon found out on matchday three what happens when Hoffenheim get a goal and space to run into.
Key players for Palace and Hoffenheim
Jean-Philippe Mateta
Mateta has 50 top-flight goals since joining in January 2021 and was the club’s leading league scorer last season. His campaign has been stop-start because of injury, and with the ban about to bite at home, Palace need him to make Thursday count. The striker has been linked with a move away, with Nottingham Forest ready to rival Man United for him, so every big night is also a shop window.
Dean Henderson
The captain’s return has steadied things. He kept a clean sheet at Fulham and stopped Dominic Solanke and Conor Gallagher at Spurs.
Andrej Kramarić
Still the man Hoffenheim run through. He scored the penalty against Leverkusen and was a goal-line clearance from scoring in Bremen with a looping header. Give him space around the box and he will punish Palace.
Is Sage’s job on the line?
The pressure is real. Sage has five wins from 14 games in all competitions since taking over in June, and there has been plenty of noise about his future, including Lyon fans wanting him back, as we covered in the latest on Sage and his old club. He told the players he wants to be first on the training pitch this week, and said “my only way to change things is on the pitch”.
A home win over Hoffenheim would lift Palace towards the top 16 and give them something to take into Sunday. Tyrick Mitchell’s message after Tottenham was to “stay together as a team”, and Kamada has pointed out that the dressing room has been through bad spells before and “will not panic”. Palace are also being linked with reinforcements, including a January move for a Trabzonspor centre-back.
Crystal Palace vs Hoffenheim predicted lineups
We expect Sage to stick with his back three and bring Mateta straight back, with Henderson in goal and the same midfield that started at Spurs.
Crystal Palace predicted lineup (3-4-2-1): Henderson; Richards, Disasi, Canvot; Mingueza, Wharton, Kamada, Mitchell; Pino, McNeil; Mateta
For Hoffenheim, we see most of the players rested in Bremen coming back in, with Kramarić and Asllani up front.
Hoffenheim predicted lineup (4-4-2): Baumann; Gendrey, Kabak, Hranáč, Bernardo; Prass, Avdullahu, Conté, Daghim; Kramarić, Asllani
Our prediction
Hoffenheim are capable of nights like the one against Lyon, but they have lost two in a row and have a habit of losing games they should not. Palace have scored eight goals in three Europa League games and, with eleven men and Mateta up front, they should create enough at Selhurst. We are going with Crystal Palace 2-1 Hoffenheim.