Ten-man City share the spoils at Crystal Palace

In a Selhurst Park clash played out amidst appalling weather thanks to Storm Darragh, Palace went ahead through Daniel Munoz early in the first half and Maxence Lacroix after the restart.

However, City – who also hit the post through Ilkay Gundogan and largely dominated territory and possession – deservedly hit back through first Haaland and then Lewis.

An incident-packed South London encounter then saw Lewis sent off late on for a second bookable offence.

But though laying virtual siege to the Eagles box in the closing stages as the champions sought a winner, ultimately City had to settle for a point.

What happened

With Britain being battered by the impact of Storm Darragh, conditions were testing in the extreme with buffeting winds, slate grey skies and driving rain marking kick-off in south London.

City began looking to build on the momentum of Wednesday’s fine home win over Nottingham Forest.

Instead, however it was the hosts who made an immediate impact, Palace taking a fifth minute lead with their very first attack of the game

City lost possession in the centre of the pitch and Palace broke at pace with Will Hughes feeding an inviting ball to Daniel Munoz on the right flank.

The Eagles right wing back powered forward before lashing home with a right footed shot that beat City keeper Stefan Ortega Moreno with the goal awarded after a VAR check for offside, Kyle Walker adjudged to have fractionally played the Palace man onside.

City almost made an immediate response with only a brave save from Dean Henderson denying Erling Haaland from close range after a superb pass from Kevin De Bruyne had put the Blues’ striker through.

Despite the blow of falling behind so early, it was City dominating the bulk of possession and territory.

However, Palace were a potent threat on the counter-attack with the hosts’ speed and direct approach a dangerous combination.

It was end-to-end stuff despite the testing conditions with Gundogan then striking the left-hand post after the German fired in a superb 20-yard shot after a De Bruyne cross had only been partially cleared, Savinho then sending the rebound wide.

The impressive Ruben Dias then produced an astounding diving block to deny what looked a certain Palace goal, the Portuguese central defender timing his block to perfection to keep out Jefferson Lerma from 10 yards as the Palace man let fly.

Within 60 seconds the importance of that stunning block was only magnified as City were level thanks to Haaland.

Matheus Nunes looped in an inviting 30th minute cross into the heart of the box and Haaland outmuscled Marc Guehi to head over Henderson, who was caught in no-man’s land, into the gaping goal to deservedly restore parity for Guardiola’s troops.

Savinho then peppered the Palace goal once again shortly before the break after another lightning City break, the Brazilian winger’s effort proving just too strong.

City began the second half again dominating affairs – but once again it was Palace who struck first through Maxence Lacroix.

A pinpoint 55th minute corner from the impressive Hughes found the advancing Lacroix and the centre half powered home a close-range header that gave Ortega no chance.

Once again though City responded to the challenge for falling behin – this time through the unlikely shape of Lewis.

A quick-fire 68th minute move from a drop ball midway in the Palace saw De Bruyne feed Bernardo who found the advancing Lewis with a delicious ball and the England defender lashed home a stunning shot into the top left-hand corner of the net.

Remarkably it was Lewis’ third Premier League goal - and all had come against Palace.

However,  the England man was then sent off for a second bookable offence after a challenge on Trevor Chaloboah, a decision that will rule Lewis out of next weekend’s Manchester derby.

Though City strove every sinew to try and find a winner, there was no further breakthrough with both sides taking the point.

Teams

CRYSTAL PALACE: Henderson, Mitchell, Guehi, Lacroix, Chalobah, Munoz, Lerma, Hughes, Eze (Devenny 71), Sarr (Nketiah 77), Mateta

Subs: Turner, Ward, Clyne, Richards, Doucoure, Schlupp, Kamada.

CITY XI: Ortega, Walker (C), Dias, Gvardiol, Lewis, Gundogan, Bernardo, De Bruyne (Grealish 86), Savinho (Doku 79), Nunes, Haaland

Subs: Ederson, Carson, Wright, Simpson-Pusey, O’Reilly, McAtee, Wilson-Esbrand

Star player

Not for the first time in his storied City career Ruben Dias put his body on the line for City – quite literally.

The Portuguese defender produced a quite sublime all-round display, marked by some quite crucial clearances in the box, the most eye-catching seeing him throw his body in the way in the first half to prevent Ismaila Sarr from putting Palace 2-0 up in the first half.

A warrior in every sense of the word.

Stat zone

That fine first half header helped maintain Erling Haaland’s remarkable goal scoring record against Crystal Palace.

For it meant the Norwegian has now scored in all four of his Premier League appearances against the Eagles, Haaland now having scored six times against the Londoners.

It also took Haaland to 13 league goals for the season – drawing him level at the top of the race for the Golden Boot alongside Mohammad Salah.

There is also something about Crystal Palace that helps bring the goal-scoring best out of Lewis.

Having registered his first two ever Premier League goals against the Eagles, the England defender did it again – firing home a brilliant second half strike to get City back on level terms for a second occasion.

Pep’s reaction

We take a point. We fought incredible and came back twice.

It’s a season to suffer. We’ll see what happens in the last month.

We tried. Big compliment for the opponent.

We cannot talk about the title race when we lose four games in a row and draw. We’ll try to recover players. We’ll see in the last month.

We have to do more games to be consistent. It’s difficult in the situation we have. I’m really pleased for the players - they fought and did everything.

BERNARDO reaction

With City it’s always two points lost. One point is better than zero but we’re not happy at the moment. We know our situation with injuries. Coming to Crystal Palace is never easy but we have to do better.

When I finish a game and I get a point I’m not happy. It’s not the way we built this team, it’s not our standard.

We know how tough it is to come here when we have all our squad and we’re in top form. We have to do better, we have to react better to the second balls. We have to give them less opportunities on set-pieces.

We’re in December. We’d like to be in a different position. If we recover our players quickly we can always do it. But right now our concern is a different one. If we’re fourth or fifth we have to look at winning the next game.

What it means

The draw means City are in fourth place in the table on 27 points.

We are eight points behind leaders Liverpool but have played  a game more.

What’s next

City return to Champions League action in midweek when we travel to Italy to take on Juventus.

The game - our sixth of our European league programme - is scheduled for Wednesday, December 11, kick-off 20.00pm. 

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