Pep Guardiola taunts Man City fans as dramatic Crystal Palace clash takes turn | Football | Sport

Pep Guardiola turned and gestured wildly towards Manchester City’s own fans after his side came from 2-0 down to level with Crystal Palace. The champions endured a torrid start at the Etihad Stadium, and appeared all at sea as Eberechi Eze and Chris Richards put the visitors 2-0 up in 21 minutes.

City’s home fans responded by voicing their frustration, targeting the Spaniard for his team selection. Their anger was almost compounded by a third goal for Palace, but Eze’s solo effort was ruled out for a marginal offside. However, the tide then turned due to the brilliance of Kevin De Bruyne.

After 33 minutes the Belgian midfielder curled home a low free kick to reduce the deficit. Just moments later, he was heavily involved in the equaliser, heading across goal into the path of Omar Marmoush, who fired a low shot past Dean Henderson.

The equaliser sparked a wild reaction from Guardiola. He initially turned and cupped hiears to the City fans and then started smiling and laughing with his selection suddenly looking vindicated.

The taunting soon turned to encouragement, though. As play restarted, the 54-year-old started to gesture to the supporters to make more noise as his team continued to pour forward.

After appearing down and out, the visitors would have been disappointed not to have gone into half time with a lead. De Bruyne was again at the heart of the things as he jinked into the area before shooting over with the goal gaping.

That prompted a reaction of despair from his boss, who was animated right up until he made his way down the tunnel for the interval. City went into the game lying sixth, but a win would take them fourth before Chelsea and Newcastle play this weekend.

Before the clash, Guardiola spoke of his side’s desire to take maximum points in the run-in to secure a top-five finish, saying: “Now it’s not very complicated. It’s a final every single game. We have to win a lot of games to qualify.”