Pep Guardiola lavished praise on two of his key players after Man City came from behind to beat Crystal Palace and go level with Liverpool at the top of the Premier League table.
Jean-Philippe Mateta gave the Eagles an early lead at Selhurst Park, but the reigning champions bounced back with a brace from Kevin De Bruyne and goals from Rico Lewis and Erling Haaland. Odsonne Edouard scored late on to make it 4-2.
Palace did cause problems with their press in the first-half, forcing Man City into errors and create chances for themselves, but were not able to extend their lead before succumbing to the visitor’s might.
De Bruyne was the star of the show, scoring his 99th and 100th goals for the club while also registering an assist after being dropped for the midweek win over Aston Villa.
“In the first half we did mistakes but we made a comeback and Kevin De Bruyne won the game with his actions, his assists, his goals and everything. We won the game with him,” Guardiola told TNT Sports.
“I didn’t know that [De Bruyne] enjoyed scoring goals more than assists but I keep pushing him to say we have to win games. He has won many games for us, no doubt. It was really good for his performance.”
Josko Gvardiola struggled at left-back in the first half before being replaced by Manuel Akanji at the break, after which Man City took a firm grip on the game.
“Manuel Akanji pushes a lot and is unbelievable playing at left-back,” Guardiola proclaimed. “He is an incredible player. Rico Lewis and Oscar Bobb were really good on that side in the first half. We wanted to score early in the second half and then we could close the game.”
Man City can now look forward to taking on Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Uefa Champions League at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night.
“We will see which players we have available because Josko had a little problem. We will see. Next one. We were unlucky to play early on after Aston Villa but now lucky we have time to recover before Real Madrid. We will try to give them a good game.”
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