Traveling to Selhurst Park, manager Pep Guardiola let Phil Foden sit on the bench, but Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne have returned to the starting lineup. The pressure on Man City is huge as they are the team to chase in the championship race. The tight schedule forced Pep to include two young stars, Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis, in the squad.
The surprise came when Crystal Palace opened the scoring for the third time after a counter-attack. Jean- Philippe Mateta broke the offside trap and scored in a face-off against Ortega. Pep was very angry on the sidelines, but Man City quickly regained focus. Just 10 minutes later, Kevin de Bruyne shined with a super goal from outside the box. In the following minutes, Man City put a lot of pressure, keeping the ball up to 90% but could not take advantage of the opportunity.
But early in the second half, Rico Lewis scored to put The Citizens ahead. In the 66th minute, Kevin De Bruyne turned around and crossed for Erling Haaland to score in a chaotic situation. Just a few minutes later, De Bruyne completed his double in a combination with Jack Grealish. The victory was almost in the hands of the blue team. Pep Guardiola decided to take a series of key players off, and this adjustment slowed down the pace of the match. Odsonne Edouard seized the opportunity and shortened the score in the 86th minute.
In the end, Man City won 4-2 and the most important thing is that there were no more injuries. Kevin de Bruyne is the biggest difference with 2 goals and 1 assist. Jack Grealish had a good match when participating in all 4 scoring situations. In the next match, the English champions will travel to the Bernabeu to face Real Madrid in the Champions League.
