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Manchester United were stunned by a brilliant late equaliser from Crystal Palace‘s Michael Olise to claim a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Olise’s stoppage-time free kick canceled out Bruno Fernandes‘ strike just before half-time that had looked set to give Man United 10 wins in a row in all competitions for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
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Instead the draw means United fail to jump above Manchester City into second in the table, staying below their rivals, who have played a game less, on goal difference.
And it will be a major frustration for manager Erik ten Hag as his side failed to build on the come-from-behind victory over their local rivals in Saturday’s Manchester derby. Further adding to Ten Hag’s woes, Casemiro was shown a second-half yellow card to mean he will be suspended for Sunday’s clash with Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Ten Hag made three changes from that 2-1 win over City, among them Dutch striker Wout Weghorst replacing the injured Anthony Martial to make his Manchester United debut following his loan move from Burnley.
Man United controlled possession from the off against a home side happy to sit off their opponents. But there were few real chances for United or their new striker. Weghorst’s best look at goal in the opening 45 minutes came when sending a difficult header onto the roof of the net from a Luke Shaw cross.
While Shaw fired a half-chance of his own wide of goal, Ten Hag’s side were indebted to a spectacular save from David de Gea to prevent Palace striking first.
Despite having nothing to do until that point, De Gea sprang into life in the 40th minute to turn an Edouard strike from the edge of the box onto the crossbar with his outstretched fingertips.
Less than four minutes after almost going behind, Man United were in front.
Concluding the visitors’ best move of the game, Christian Eriksen was allowed to run clear onto a Casemiro pass down the left of the box before patiently picking out Fernandes in the middle with a pull-back. From there, the in-form Portugal international bided his time before firing past Vicente Guaita to score in consecutive games for the first time this season.
The game was briefly interrupted in the second half when a pitch invader ran up to Casemiro asking for a selfie.
United thought they should have had a chance to extend their lead in the final 20 minutes when substitute Scott McTominay went down under a challenge by United States defender Chris Richards, making his first Premier League start. But a VAR review upheld the no-penalty call.
As the match approached its conclusion, Palace began to apply some concerted pressure on their opponents for the first time. And once again De Gea was called into action, this time parrying a header from Marc Guehi.
Despite offering little going forward in the second half, it looked like United would do enough to hold on for the three points until Olise’s stunning intervention.