C Palace 2-2 Man City (December 7, 2024) Match analysis

Manchester City’s Rico Lewis scored a second-half goal before being shown a red card in the final minutes, but his struggling side held on for a 2-2 Premier League draw with Crystal Palace in wet and windy Selhurst on Saturday Park only got one point.

Erling Haaland also scored for Pep Guardiola’s City, who remained winless in six away games across all competitions and remained fourth in the table with 27 points after 15 games. Palace are four points above the drop zone in 16th place.

“We get a point. We fought incredibly and came back twice,” Guardiola told BBC Sport. “It is a season of suffering. We’ll see what happens in the last few months.”

“We tried. Big compliment for the opponent. We can’t talk about the title race if we lose and draw four games in a row. We have to play more games to stay consistent. It’s difficult in the situation we find ourselves in. I’m happy for the players – they fought and did everything.”

Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

---

City faltered early in defense and Daniel Muñoz put Palace on the scoresheet in the fourth minute when he picked up a pass from Will Hughes and slotted it past Stefan Ortega into the far corner.

The German goalkeeper, who started for Éderson for the third game in a row, will regret not being able to stop Muñoz’s shot after he managed to control it.

City equalized in the 30th minute when Haaland headed a long cross from Matheus Nunes into the far corner. With his 13th league goal of the season, he drew level with the league’s top scorer, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.

Maxence Lacroix gave Palace the lead against the run of play in the 56th minute when he headed into Hughes’ corner, completely unmolested.

But City equalized again in the 68th minute when Bernardo Silva played a beautiful pass to Lewis, who emphatically scored his first goal of the season and the third league goal of his career.

City were reduced to 10 men in the 84th minute after Lewis picked up his second yellow card following a tackle on Trevoh Chalobah. After the final whistle, Guardiola angrily ran at the referees to argue the decision.

The visitors secured a thoroughly superior 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest, which marked a return to winning ways after a difficult run of results, but the celebration was short-lived.

Guardiola’s side missed several other chances, including an early direct shot from Haaland that Palace keeper Dean Henderson stopped with the side of his face, then lay on the ground receiving treatment for several minutes before continuing.

Ilkay Gündogan also shot a long shot past the post in the first half.