Manchester United were stunned by an incredible late equaliser scored by the Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise to claim a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park in the Premier League on Wednesday.
The stoppage-time free kick of Olise cancelled the goal Bruno Fernandes’ strike just before half-time. It appeared likely to hand Man United 10 wins in consecutive matches to begin the season for the first time since.
In the end, the draw is a sign that United do not manage to move above Manchester City into second in the table. They remain below their nearest rivals who have played one game less, based on goal differences.
This will cause major disappointment for coach Erik ten Hag after his team failed to capitalize on their come-from-behind win over their opponents in the local Manchester derby. To add to Ten Hag’s troubles, Casemiro was shown a second-half yellow card, which means the suspension will begin for Sunday’s match against Premier League leaders Arsenal.
“We’re not happy with a draw. We should have taken our chances and closed the game,” Fernandes declared. “They scored a brilliant goal towards the end. We have nothing to do about it now.
“We have to look forward now. Other games are coming. We’re still doing good things. We’re really disappointed with the result but the next one is close.”
The Ten Hag team made 3 changes to the 2-1 victory over City One of them was Dutch forward Wout Weghorst replacing the injured Anthony Martial to make his Manchester United debut following his transfer from Burnley.
Man United controlled possession from the beginning against a team at home who were content to snooze on their opponents. However, there were only a handful of real chances for United and their new attacker. Weghorst’s most impressive goal during the first 45 minutes was when he sent a an awkward header on the goal’s roof from an Luke Shaw cross.
As Shaw shot a half-chance at his own goal wide The team of Ten Hag were grateful for a stunning saving goal by David de Gea to prevent Palace scoring first.
Although he had nothing to do prior to that, De Gea sprang into his life at the end of 40 minutes, allowing him to make into a Edouard strike at the edges of the field into the crossbar by using his fingers stretched out.
Just four minutes after nearly losing the match, Man United were in first.
The final move of the match, Christian Eriksen was allowed to get clear of a Casemiro cross to the left side of the box, before he patiently picked the ball up Fernandes on the middle using the pull-back. After that, the prolific Portugal international waited his turn before firing over Vicente Guaita to score in consecutive games for the first time in this season.
It was disrupted in the second half after an opponent approached Casemiro and asked for a photo.
United believed they could have had the opportunity to make it a bigger advantage in the final 20 minutes, when their substitute Scott McTominay went down under an attack by United States defender Chris Richards who made his the first Premier League start. However, a VAR review confirmed the decision to not penalize.
As the game neared the end of the game, Palace began to apply an intense pressure against their opposition for the very first time. Again, De Gea was called into action, this time by preventing an attempt to block a header by Marc Guehi.
Although United did not offer much forward momentum during the second half it appeared United could be able to secure the three points prior to Olise’s dazzling strike.
“In the last 15 minutes we put pressure on them. Michael scored that free kick,” Palace manager Patrick Vieira said.
“It was tough, we worked hard and we got rewarded.”
Information obtained from Reuters was utilized for this article.
