Stunning late Crystal Palace equaliser denies Manchester United tenth straight win
Manchester United looked to be heading for a tenth straight win in all competitions, but a stunning late free-kick from Michael Olise saw them held to a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace.
A Bruno Fernandes goal two minutes before half-time gave the Red Devils the lead and, although they needed David De Gea to make a couple of remarkable saves, it looked like that was going to be the difference.
However, as the clock ticked past 90 minutes, Olise lined up a free-kick from distance in the inside-right channel, and curled in an effort beyond the reach of De Gea.
The drama wasn’t over there as Casemiro very nearly poked home a late winner, while it then looked like Wilfried Zaha was going to burst in on goal, but Aaron Wan-Bissaka produced a superb last ditch tackle.
It was a bad night for Casemiro as he was shown a yellow card for a lunge on Zaha with 10 minutes to play and the booking means that the Brazilian will be suspended for the trip to league-leaders Arsenal on Sunday. A serious blow to United as the former Real Madrid man has been exceptional since his arrival in the summer.
Manchester United, who started with new loan signing Wout Weghorst up front, did not create a huge amount of clear-cut chances over the piece, with Vicente Guaita not called into a lot of action in the Palace goal.
However, it was a well-worked goal and the Eagles falling to sleep defensively that saw them take the lead.
Christian Eriksen and Marcus Rashford played a one-two on the left flank which was far too easy to pull off as the home side pondered. The Dane is not someone you want to give time on the ball and he comfortably picked out Fernandes with a pull-back and the Portuguese star finished impressively, curling the ball past Guaita’s dive to his left.
That goal came just three minutes after De Gea had made a spectacular save from a well-hit shot from Odsonne Edouard, with the goalkeeper at full stretch to tip the shot over the bar.
De Gea made another memorable save from a Marc Guehi header with 15 minutes to play, but he could not keep out Olise’s free-kick, no one could have done as his powerful strike blasted in off the underside of the crossbar.
Manchester United will be frustrated, especially as they felt that they were denied a strong second half penalty shout when Scott McTominay was felled in the box, but it was denied.
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