- Gundogan gives City lead
- Townsend scores beauty (video)
- Milivojevic wins it from spot
Jeffrey Schlupp, Andros Townsend, and Luka Milivojevic scored as Crystal Palace built a two-goal lead and held on to beat Manchester City 3-2 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne scored for City, who led 1-0 and now sits four points back of leaders Liverpool heading into Christmas.
Palace moves 14th with 18 points.
[ MORE: Watch full PL match replays ]
Man City was in firm control, almost from moment No. 1. Nicolas Otamendi came close to scoring early, and Leroy Sane blasted into the outside of the net in the 11th minute.
The air of inevitability was proven correct by Gundogan, who ran onto a Fabian Delph cross to head into the corner for 1-0 in the 27th minute.
Palace equalized out of nothing, with James McArthur feeding Schlupp outside the box. Schlupp was given some room to shoot by Kyle Walker, and worked left before finishing right. 1-1, 33'.
That’s when Palace made it 2-1 with a Goal of the Season contender, with Townsend tearing into a looping clearance with perfect technique. The frozen rope beat Ederson to his left.
[ MORE: Latest Premier League standings ]13 - Since his Premier League debut (11th Feb 2017), Crystal Palace’s Luka Milivojevic has scored 13 penalties - five more than any other player in that time. Pinpoint. #MCICRY
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 22, 2018
[ MORE: Full lineups, stats, box score ]
Walker’s bad day got worse when he chopped down Max Meyer in the box to give Palace a chance for 3-1, which Milivojevic converted to the left of Ederson with a near-perfect take.
Gundogan smashed a 69th minute effort wide of frame from distance, as Palace packed the box and dared City to find a way into the danger areas.
Sane hammered a free kick off the bar in the 76th.
City made it 3-2 in the 85th through De Bruyne, who curled a beautiful ball over Wayne Hennessey from a wild distance. If it was almost anyone else, you’d have called it a mishit cross.
