Having been rather surprisingly held to a draw in last week’s first leg in Bosnia, Oliver Glasner’s men knew there was work still to be done in South London.
However, despite a strong starting XI on the pitch, Palace’s urgency wasn’t there early in this one. Evann Guessand won a glancing header in the box on the quarter-hour mark that was goal-bound but for a deflection off a visiting defender.
Daichi Kamada’s effort was also turned behind via a deflection in a niggly first period that saw plenty of cheap fouls, resulting in four yellow cards split evenly between the teams.
The Nobles were very much camped in their own half, though, and the Eagles took a deserved lead 10 minutes before HT.
Adam Wharton put a sumptuous free kick on a sixpence for Maxence Lacroix, who glanced home a header for his second goal in Europe this season.
While Igor Stimac’s side were on the back foot throughout this one, Palace knew that a one-goal lead was still precarious and went in search of a second on the night. Ismaila Sarr’s looping header was easily held by Goran Karacic before he was able to watch Chris Richards glance one over the bar.
With 10 minutes left on the clock, Tyrick Mitchell made a careering run down the left flank before picking out Sarr with a brilliant cross, but the Senegal international could only plant his header wide.
It was not to be Sarr’s night as a Richards pass split the Zrinjski defence and sent him through one-on-one, but Karacic stayed strong and repelled him.
There was time for a late scare for the Selhurst Park faithful when Will Hughes and Kerim Memija tangled in the box, but the whistle from referee Luís Godinho was for a free kick in favour of the hosts.
Tomi Juric then nodded one wide as the Bosnian champions went for broke in stoppage time, but they were caught on the counter-attack, and Guessand finished having been played through by Brennan Johnson to finally allow Palace fans to breathe easy.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Ismaïla Sarr (Crystal Palace)
