Man City vs Crystal Palace LIVE: Kevin De Bruyne inspires City comeback from two goals down in seven-goal thriller
Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace: Kevin De Bruyne was the hero of the hour as City fought back from 2-0 down to an utterly dominant win
Manchester City contested a rollercoaster seven-goal thriller against Crystal Palace, producing one of their best performances of the season to fight back from two goals down.
Pep Guardiola’s men finished 5-2 up at the Etihad, with departing star Kevin De Bruyne sparking City into life and ensuring they put the pressure on Newcastle and Chelsea in the battle for the Champions League places with the Premier League now guaranteed five qualification spots in Europe’s top tier.
The hosts moved up to fourth in the top flight, just two points off third-placed Nottingham Forest, with goals from De Bruyne, Omar Marmoush, Mateo Kovacic, James McAtee and Nico O'Reilly completing a stunning comeback after going 2-0 down in a little over 20 minutes.
Eberechi Eze and Chris Richards - the latter scoring his first Premier League goal this season - put the visitors in front, with City completely carved open at the back, but the game hinged on a third Palace goal and second for Eze, which was disallowed for offside. From there De Bruyne led an inspired fightback to dismantle one of the league’s in-form sides and go some way to ending his long career at the Etihad on a high.
Follow all of the latest from the Etihad Stadium with our live blog below:
James McAtee speaks to TNT Sports
“I don’t think we deserved to be 2-0 down,” the youngster, who scored City’s fourth goal, says on TNT Sports. “I think I missed a few chances early on and the game just got away from us a little bit. We were playing well anyway, we knew the goals were going to come and they did.
“Obviously we wanted to prove a point and show that we were committed and want to finish in the Champions League spots.”
On Ederson’s assist: “He can kick it dead far,” he says, smiling. “He’s got a great pass so when I saw the defence was high up I just tried to get between them and the goal.”
'Ridiculous game and great entertainment'
Ridiculous game and great entertainment. It could bode well for the FA Cup final, given these two teams could meet again at Wembley. City had only scored five times in six league matches. They got five in an afternoon. And while De Bruyne only scored one of them, he had a part in four. A sensational display.
FULL-TIME: Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
90+7 mins: Palace win a late corner but it comes to nothing, and that’s the last action of the game.
A warm hug between Glasner and Guardiola and the City manager gives his man of the match de Bruyne a big hug too.
What a turnaround.
Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
90+6 mins: This game could easily have reached double digits in terms of goals, with plenty more clear-cut chances for both sides and both sides denied a penalty. Watching that back, it’s a definite handball by Lewis.
NO PENALTY! Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
90+5 mins: Glasner shouts for a penalty as a Palace cross appears to clatter off O’Reilly’s arm, but VAR says no.
Lerma gets a yellow for a cynical foul on Doku.
Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
90+3 mins: Clyne covers a move by Doku, Savinho and Bobb as the subs combine to try to get a sixth. O’Reilly does well to muscle his way past a couple of Palace defenders and keep the ball.
Lots of applause around the stadium as De Bruyne is announced as man of the match. No contest really.
Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
90 minutes: Seven minutes added on for Palace to try to not concede again.
Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
88 mins: More subs for City. Kevin de Bruyne gets a standing ovation as he comes off along with Kovacic. Doku and Grealish are on.
CHANCE! Manchester City 5-2 Crystal Palace
86 mins: Palace get the chance to pull one back as they launch a rare counter-attack int his second half. Franca smashes a cross across the face of goal, with Sarr desperate to get there, but it drifts just wide. It goes out for a corner but Ortega manages to punch it away, and it’s out for another Palace corner.
Devenny misses a kick and Clyne smashes it over the bar.
Ederson goes off after mixed day at the office
Ederson has gone off after another idiosyncratic display. At fault for one goal, he created another. He has four Premier League assists this season, a total topped only by Savinho and De Bruyne. But his mistakes have been too frequent.
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