A wonderful Kevin De Bruyne double - including his 100th goal for Manchester City - helped the Premier League's defending champions to a 4-2 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday which moved them level on points with leaders Liverpool.
2023/2024 Premier League
2-4
Match Report
It was far from plain sailing for a shaky City in the first half in south London, with a John Stones error allowing Jean-Philippe Mateta to put Palace ahead and further sloppy passes from Rodri leading to Jordan Ayew hitting the bar and Stefan Ortega having to pull off a Cruyff turn in his own six-yard box to prevent Mateta adding another. But the returning De Bruyne curled in a brilliant equaliser, and two minutes into the second half Rico Lewis gave City the lead their possession and chance creation in that first 45 warranted.
Like De Bruyne, Erling Haaland was recalled to City's starting XI on Saturday and, after a quiet first half in which he had just seven touches, the striker will have been pleased to tuck in a cross from the Belgian to end his five-game run without a goal for club and country.
De Bruyne then lashed in his milestone strike from a Rodri lay-off to put City into cruise control, although Odsonne Edouard's late finish - after Ruben Dias had cleared another of his efforts off the line minutes earlier - gave the visitors a trickier final few minutes than they were expecting.
But with De Bruyne and Haaland scoring and Phil Foden given the afternoon off after his hat-trick on Thursday, City's key players look primed for their huge Champions League quarter-final away day at Real Madrid on Tuesday.
As for Palace, they are now on a run of one win in eight. They sit eight points above the relegation zone with seven games to play.
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
3' GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-0 Man City (Jean-Philippe Mateta)
7' CHANCE! Gvardiol header over the bar
11' CLOSE! Alvarez’s shot wide out
13' GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-1 Man City (De Bruyne)
36' AGAIN! Alvarez’s long shot inches wide!
47' GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-2 Man City (Rico Lewis)
47' Yellow Card! Josko Gvardiol booked
66' GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-3 Man City (Haaland)
70' GOAL! Crystal Palace 1-4 Man City (De Bruyne)
86' GOAL! Crystal Palace 2-4 Man City (Odsonne Edouard)
Line-ups
Crystal Palace XI: Ward, Jordan Ayew, Hughes, Andersen, Lerma, Dean Henderson, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Eberechi Eze, Daniel Muñoz, Tyrick Mitchell, Adam Wharton
Subs: Tomkins, Clyne, Schlupp, Remi Matthews, Odsonne Edouard, Michael Olise, Naouirou Ahamada, David Ozoh, Franco Umeh-Chibueze
Man City XI: De Bruyne, Stefan Ortega, Stones, Grealish, Ruben Dias, Rodri, Haaland, Julián Álvarez, Josko Gvardiol, Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis
Subs: Kovacic, Ederson, Bernardo, Akanji, Foden, Sergio Gómez, Matheus Nunes, Jérémy Doku, Mahamadou Susoho