Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Verri

Man City 5-2 Crystal Palace: Eagles let two-goal lead slip as Kevin De Bruyne stars in thrilling clash

Manchester City recovered from a disastrous start to thrash Crystal Palace 5-2 and move into the top four of the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola’s side were two goals behind with barely 20 minutes on the clock, as Eberechi Eze finished off a lovely move and Chris Richards was then allowed to get up and nod in from a corner from a couple of yards out.

Palace were rampant on the counter, particularly down their right side, and were inches away from a third as Eze found the bottom corner, only to be denied by the offside flag.

That proved to be a turning point, as Kevin De Bruyne then whipped in a free-kick off the inside of the post and the match flipped on its head.

City were suddenly dominant, De Bruyne at the heart of everything, and his nodded header into the middle brought a mis-kick from Ilkay Gundogan, but that took the ball into the path of Omar Marmoush to lash home an equaliser before half-time.

Within two minutes of the restart, City were in front. De Bruyne’s lay-off found Mateo Kovacic, and he ran onto it to finish calmly on the stretch and complete a superb turnaround.

Three became four when Ederson pinged a glorious ball over the top of the Palace defence, James McAtee beat the offside trap and went round Dean Henderson to leave him with an empty net.

And there was still time for Nico O’Reilly to join the fun, his volleyed strike flicking off Nathan Clyne on the way to the bottom corner.

The only concern for City was Ederson limping off with 20 minutes to go, having gone down off the ball after appearing to tweak something when playing a pass.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.