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joshua zirczy And mason mount Second-half goal brings Manchester United back on track with hard-fought 2-1 win in Premier League crystal Palace,
Ruben Amorim’s critics were quick to make a comeback as United suffered a crushing defeat at home to 10-man Everton on Monday, ending their encouraging five-match unbeaten run.
When Jean-Philippe Mateta broke the deadlock with a retake penalty in the 36th minute after hitting the ball twice with his first effort, the Palace boss oliver glassner Seemed to be preparing to inflict more misery on Amorim.
However, Amorim saw Zirkzee perform brilliantly this season and scored his first league goal since December with a superb low finish after 54 minutes and Mount’s curling effort completed the turnaround nine minutes later.
After Palace’s initial response, United performed relatively comfortably, winning four from seven to move into the top-half and finish just four points behind rivals Manchester City.
United’s mini resurgence under Amorim was halted against Everton and he switched full-backs to his much-maligned 3-4-2-1 formation at Selhurst Park.
Against a Palace team in the same set-up, the visitors made the bright start and Casemiro could have scored within 60 seconds, but his close-range effort was blocked by Dean Henderson.
Mateta soon began terrorizing the United backline with a shot after Matthijs de Ligt’s clearance was hit by a teammate. Leni Yoro,
Adam Wharton – one of three recalled after Thursday’s defeat at Strasbourg – fired a half-volley straight at Sane Lammens before Palace advanced.
United were indebted to Yoro’s excellent block to deny the impressive Jeremy Pino shortly after Daichi Kamada fired weakly at Lammens.
Palace’s pressure continued and they were awarded a penalty when Wharton delivered a wonderful pass to France international Mateta, which was caught by compatriot Yoro, prompting referee Rob Jones to point to the spot.
Mateta missed a penalty in the Conference League in early November but sent Lammens the wrong way and yet the celebrations were cut short when VAR deemed Mateta had hit the ball twice.
An announcement over the PA system by referee Jones led to a brief celebration by the United faithful, before being silenced when it was announced that the spot-kick would be retaken.
Matata composed himself and fired past Lammens again after 36 minutes, before Luke Shaw thwarted Pino and Eddie Nketiah with two superb last-ditch blocks in his 300th appearance for United.
With Amorim’s half-time team-talk echoing in the crowd’s ears, they made a bright start to the second session and equalized in the 54th minute.
Fernandes’ free kick picked out Zirkzee, who got away from Kamada and fired a powerful strike from a tight angle beyond ex-United goalkeeper Henderson.
This ended Zirzky’s run of 25 league matches without a goal, but he almost put the ball into his own net moments later when substitute Noussair Mazraoui broke up a clearance against the Dutch forward.
However, United completed the turnaround with 63 minutes played when Fernandes curled a free kick from the free kick to round the wall for Mount to catch Henderson.
Glassner was furious on the touchline, but after Nketiah headed wide for Palace and Justin Devaney fired a stoppage-time free kick into the wall, Amorim’s side deserved big celebrations at full-time.