Super Eagles Take Point From Reigning Champions City

Many were not expecting anything other than a victory for the visitors ahead of kick off, and along with the stormy weather, you could not have begrudged fans choosing not to attend, but they missed an excellent performance from Palace.

MATCH INFORMATION

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 2 Joel WARD, 15 Jeffrey SCHLUPP, 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 18 Daichi KAMADA, 26 Chris RICHARDS, 28 Cheick DOUCOURE, 30 Matt TURNER

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 31 EDERSON, 33 Scott CARSON, 56 Jacob WRIGHT, 66 Jahmai SIMPSON-PUSEY, 75 Nico REILLY, 87 James MCATEE, 97 Josh WILSON-ESBRAND

TEB VERDICT

From minute one, the Eagles showed what they were all about with a half chance straight from the kick off. Building from that early chance, Daniel Munoz grabbed his second for the club after very good build up play. The second was an excellent header from Max Lacroix further enhancing his reputation in South London.

It could well have been all three points against the reigning champions, the performance was that good with every player on that pitch playing their part, making the visitors come back twice to find equalisers.

The best thing about this performance is that there was some very good passages of play which has left fans thinking that things are finally starting to click, and perhaps when Ebere Eze is back firing on all cylinders we have plenty to look forward to. First things first, is to pull away from the bottom three, with another big game coming up on the horizon, and that would not be a bad place to continue to good form.

Worthy mentions to Munoz who was outstanding again as was Lacriox along with the brilliant Will Hughes who has built up a very good partnership in the middle with Jefferson Lerma.

BOB’S POINT OF VIEW

Bob White was a coach at Palace under the tenure of Steve Coppell and Alan Smith and will be sharing his point of view each week in our review article.

“Before the Newcastle game I believed we needed a minimum of 5 points from the next 3 games. Following an excellent result at Ipswich in midweek, that target was achieved today against City.

We witnessed an entertaining game at Selhurst and maybe a feeling of disappointment in not gaining all three points after twice having our noses in front. However, in the round it was definitely a hard earned but well deserved result.

For long periods, we kept the obvious potent attacking threat of City at arm’s length whilst regularly posing questions of their defence.

A well worked early goal converted by Munoz and a towering header by Lacroix from a corner gave us hope that we could gain our third win of the season, but at least ensured the game remained competitive until the final whistle.

The engine room of our team in midfield repeatedly closed off the angles into dangerous areas whilst also giving us a platform to set up attacking threats of our own.

A performance which confirmed the team and individual improvements made over the course of the past few weeks. The result means only 1 loss in 8 games.

Two stand out performances – Lacroix in defence plus his goal and the continuing excellence of Hughes in midfield who has fast become a player who would be difficult to drop from our starting line up.

In total, many positives to take from our past 3 games and hopefully a sign of some wins to come before the close of the year.”

POST GAME QUOTES

OLIVER GLASNER

“We are pleased with the point and many parts of the performance. It feels like if we’d performed at our best level we could have won the game. We had a few other good opportunities.

An unbeaten week with draws against Newcastle and Manchester City, everything is fine. We want to improve and get better in some situations and we could win those games.

After having the lead twice, especially after 2-1 we got too passive. It’s not that easy against City, it’s not a criticism of the players but when you’re in your own third it’s a matter of time. A gap of one yard they find it with one or two touches.”

PEP GUARDIOLA

“Really good. So proud of the team. I liked everything of the team, how we fought. We have a lot of problems with our squad. We fought incredible. We came back twice. It’s a difficult place to come. We struggled in the beginning. We gave everything and we take a point.

Long balls, second balls, they’re stronger than us. We started the second half a bit sloppy. After 2-1 we reacted well.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES