Despite initial difficulties, Manchester City won away to Crystal Palace 4-2 and is still in the game for the fourth consecutive league title. Kevin De Bruyne showed another performance, authoring two goals and an assist.
Tomasz Galiński
April 6, 2024, 15:29
PAP/EPA / Andy Rain / In the photo: Manchester City easily beat Crystal Palace after Kevin De Bruyne’s great game. Kevin De Bruyne has already scored 100 goals for Manchester City. It was a concert for the Belgian midfielder. Without him, there would not have been such an impressive win against Crystal Palace. It is not known whether it would be possible at all.
After all, it started badly from the guests’ perspective – in the 4th minute, Jean-Philippe Mateta launched a deadly counterattack and defeated Stefan Ortega with a precise shot (with a little help from the post). Manchester City, of course, had a large advantage in possession of the ball, while their rivals were able to fight back. In the first half they also had, among others: Jordan Ayew hit the crossbar.
Despite everything, we didn’t see the best version of Manchester City at Selhust Park. Pep Guardiola complained about the schedule and once again decided to rotate the squad. Phil Foden, who recently scored a hat-trick, was on the bench. The absence of the Englishman was visible, but why does Guardiola have De Bruyne in his squad?
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This is an artist. First he took a fantastic shot from the corner of the penalty area. He hit the ball right in the window and equalized the score. Later, he was deprived of the assist by Erling Haaland, who was unable to beat Dean Henderson in a one-on-one situation.
After the break, however, he added more numbers. First, he assisted Haaland’s goal (the Norwegian couldn’t make a mistake here), and then he finished his team’s beautiful action. It was a goal to make it 4-1, because after the break Rico Lewis was the first to score. In hindsight, it should be assessed that this was a key moment of this meeting. “The Citizens” surprised their opponent right after leaving the locker room and they were unable to respond. The advantage was overwhelming and the result could easily have been even higher.
This did not happen, and a quarter of an hour before the end, Guardiola rested, among others, Rodri. And this resulted in the hosts gaining the upper hand, they scored one goal, had further opportunities, but that was it.
Such a victory was important, looking at the Premier League table (now we can wait for Liverpool and Arsenal’s response), but the match of truth is yet to come. On Tuesday, Manchester City will play the first quarter-final of the Champions League in Madrid against Real.
Crystal Palace – Manchester City 2:4 (1:1)
1:0 Jean-Philippe Mateta 4′
1:1 Kevin De Bruyne 13′
1:2 Rico Lewis 47′
1:3 Erling Haaland 66′
1:4 Kevin De Bruyne 70′
2:4 Odsonne Edouard 86′
Compositions:
Crystal Palace: Dean Henderson – Joel Ward, Joachim Andersen, Jefferson Lerma – Daniel Munoz, Adam Wharton, Will Hughes (82′ Naouirou Ahamada), Tyrick Mitchell (75′ Nathaniel Clyne) – Eberechi Eze (64′ Jeffrey Schlupp), Jean-Philippe Mateta (75′ Odsonne Edouard), Jordan Ayew (74′ Michael Olise).
Manchester City: Stefan Ortega – John Stones, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol (46′ Manuel Akanji) – Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis, Rodri (74′ Mateo Kovacić), Kevin De Bruyne (90+3′ Bernardo Silva), Julian Alvarez (74′ Matheus Nunes), Jack Grealish – Erling Haaland.
Yellow cards: Mateta (Crystal Palace) and Gvardiol (Manchester City).
Judge: Paul Tierney.
Premier League
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