Palace surrender two leads but happy enough to keep Man City at bay

A programme cover that celebrates a friendly under the lights at Selhurst against Real Madrid in 1962 (Picture: @YTJourno)

Crystal Palace (1) 2 Munoz 4, Lacroix 57

Man City (1) 2 Haaland 30, Lewis 68

Palace were pegged back twice but will take a massive dose of encouragement after taking a precious point off the champions.

A goal after just four minutes from Daniel Munoz and a first for the club from Maxence Lacroix twice had the Eagles in front against a City side looking more vulnerable these days.

But even though Pep Guardiola's men managed to hit back twice, they did not go on to inflict another of those routine defeats Palace fans have had to endure over the past nine years - ending the game with 10 men after Rico Lewis was dismissed.

When you add in the late equaliser against Newcastle and the narrow midweek win at Ipswich, these are small but very important steps being taken by Oliver Glasner's men in their bid to escape the relegation ferment.

The start was just what he wanted to prey on the nerves of a City side still smarting from a barely believable seven game stretch without a win. The surprise was perhaps the identity of the goalscorer.

Now he has a taste for it, Munoz can't stop trying to find the back of the net again.

From the same angle and at the same Holmesdale End as last week's equaliser against Newcastle, the Colombian flashed a shot past Stefan Ortega's right hand with the match only four minutes old - having been picked out by Will Hughes. The once super-fast Kyle Walker was playing him onside.

Erling Haaland drew City level on the half hour when he towered over Marc Guehi to reach a Matheus Nunes cross from the left and sent a looping header over Dean Henderson and into the net.

Henderson, making his 100th Premier League appearance, had earlier made a superlative raised-arm stop to deny Haaland - expertly found by a smart pass from Kevin De Bruyne - but here he had no chance.

Palace regained the lead soon after the break against the run of play with another of those suddenly-fashionable goals from a corner - Lacroix getting above Walker to nod in Hughes' flag kick.

But City kept faith with their passing and search for control and their patient probing was rewarded when Bernardo Silva slipped in Lewis for the equaliser - the England man finishing tidily.

City scented a win now and the Eagles dropped deeper and deeper as the pressure applied by those familiar City rhythms started to tell. Henderson did very well to claw a defected shot away.

The visitors' chase for all three points hit the buffers though, when Lewis picked up a second yellow with six minutes remaining - his lunge for the ball catching Trevoh Chalobah, though it looked like a 50-50 challenge.

In a fairly even first half, Ilkay Gundogan's left footer from the edge of the box pinged back off a post and Savinho did not miss by much after picking up the rebound.

But Palace were discomforting City, whose defence simply does not look as well protected these days without Rodri and shorn of John Stones, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji. When Munoz got the better of Rico Lewis to get in a cross, it tooked some panicked blocks to keep Palace out.

Palace have now gone 11 games without a win against City at Selhurst. The best they managed before today was two 0-0 draws. They have scored only six goals in all that time - two of them last season in another losing cause. But this one decidedly felt like a big improvement.

April 2015 was the last time they managed to beat them in South London - with Glenn Murray and Jason Puncheon scoring. Murray was on media duty for this one and he will have enjoyed seeing the Eagles so competitive against City for once.

Eagles: (3-4-2-1) Henderson - Chalobah, Lacroix, Guehi - Muniz, Hughes, Lerma, Mitchell - Sarr (Nketiah 77), Eze (Devenny 72) - Mateta

Citizens: (3-2-4-1) Ortega - Walker, Dias, Gvardiol - Lewis, Gundogan - Savinho (Doku 79), Silva, De Bruyne (Grealish 86), Nunes - Haaland

Attendance: 25,142