Manchester United overturned an early deficit to beat 10-man Crystal Palace 2-1 and move into third place in the Premier League table for the first time since 2023. The match swung on two decisive moments: Lacroix conceded a penalty and was sent off for pulling Matheus Cunha in the area, and Bruno Fernandes converted the spot kick to level the scores.<\/p>\n
Bruno Fernandes remained the principal creative force throughout a sterile first half, producing the penalty and then delivering the cross that Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko met shortly after the hour mark. \u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s header was his seventh goal of the calendar year and extended his rich vein of form; four goals in his last five matches now. The Slovenian had earlier missed a similar chance but made no mistake at the second opportunity.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s control over the remainder of the game was helped by Lacroix\u2019s dismissal. The win lifts Michael Carrick\u2019s side above Aston Villa on goal difference.<\/p>\n
Palace had taken the lead from a set piece, with Leny Yoro losing his marker and allowing Lacroix an unmarked header. That opening goal exposed the absence of Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez and made the fixture more difficult for United early on. Luke Shaw was withdrawn with an injury midway through the first half.<\/p>\n
Individual notes<\/p>\n
GK: Senne Lammens\u20146.7: Seldom tested but stood up to the challenge when occasionally forced into action. Helpless to rebuff Lacroix\u2019s effort.
\nRB: Diogo Dalot\u20147.5: Alarmingly sloppy in possession early but found life easier against tiring opposition.
\nCB: Leny Yoro\u20146.8: Dismal man-to-man defending allowed Lacroix to open the scoring.
\nCB: Harry Maguire\u20147.4: Competed well against J\u00f8rgen Strand Larsen.
\nLB: Luke Shaw\u20146.0: Started but was withdrawn due to injury.
\nDM: Casemiro\u20148.2: Effective from set pieces and combative.
\nDM: Kobbie Mainoo\u20147.6: Prioritised simple passes and stability.
\nRW: Bryan Mbeumo\u20147.2: Energetic but unable to influence the final outcome.
\nAM: Bruno Fernandes\u20149.2: A goal and an assist; his leadership was decisive.
\nLW: Matheus Cunha\u20147.2: Won the penalty that changed the game.
\nST: Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko\u20147.9: Recalled and delivered with a composed header.<\/p>\n
Subs: Noussair Mazraoui 7.2, Amad Diallo 6.8, Ayden Heaven N\/A, Joshua Zirkzee N\/A. Subs not used: Altay Bay\u0131nd\u0131r, Tyrell Malacia, Jack Moorhouse, Manuel Ugarte, Tyler Fletcher.<\/p>\n
Key match statistics: Possession 61%\u201339%, xG 2.12\u20130.38, Shots 20\u20138, Shots on target 11\u20133, Big chances 3\u20130, Passing accuracy 86%\u201376%, Fouls 13\u201312.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bruno Fernandes spot kick and \u0160e\u0161ko header turned a nervy game into a 2-1 United victory. and belief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[465,1083,172],"tags":[317,342,939],"class_list":["post-7163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crystal-palace","category-man-utd","category-epl","tag-benjamin-sesko","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}