Oliver Glasner insisted the only disappointment arising from Crystal Palace’s 2-2 draw with KuPS is that Leeds now know his team for their Premier League showdown on Saturday.
Palace must qualify for the UEFA Conference League round of 16 through the play-offs in February after taking an early lead at Selhurst Park through Christantus Uche but then failing to finish further chances.
Piotr Parzyszek and Ibrahim Cisse hit back for the Finnish champions, who had Clinton Antwi sent off for a bruising tackle on Will Hughes, with Justin Devenny grabbing the equaliser in the 77th minute.
Glasner made 11 changes in anticipation of playing two matches in 48 hours, giving starts to academy teenagers Joel Drakes-Thomas, Dean Benamar and George King, and will rotate back to his senior side against Leeds.
“The result is not what we wanted. It’s a game we could easily have won. We calculated the risk of getting a draw,” Glasner said.
“Everything else worked as we planned it because we were able to rest a few players.
“The only thing I don’t like is that Leeds now know our starting line-up because there are only 11 players who didn’t start and nobody will start both games.
“We lost our structure for 10 minutes and were punished. Two mistakes and this can happen especially with many young players.
“Credit to everyone, especially our academy players. All four of them showed up and played with confidence.
“They gave good performances but we can see they are not used to playing at this level because they were cramping after 60 minutes.
“Of course we only had one training session together we we can’t expect everything to be perfect, but they showed they are big talents.”
KuPS boss Jarkko Wiss insisted he felt no disrespect from the side selected by Glasner.
“If you’re picked by Palace, then you’re a good player,” he said.
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