Categories: Sports

EPL: De Bruyne leads Man City comeback as Everton beat Nottingham Forest

Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne inspired the club’s fightback from two goals down to beat Crystal Palace 5-2, while Nottingham Forest’s challenge for a place in next season’s Champions League stumbled after a 1-0 defeat by Everton on Saturday.

In De Bruyne’s first appearance at the Etihad Stadium since announcing his decade in Manchester will come to an end at the end of the season, the Belgian rolled back the years to save City’s blushes.

Unbeaten in seven games, Palace made the trip north full of confidence and found themselves 2-0 up after 20 minutes.

Eberechi Eze slotted home Ismaila Sarr’s pass before Chris Richards took advantage of poor City defending to head in from a corner.

Eze had a third goal narrowly ruled out for offside before De Bruyne stirred the City fightback.

The 33-year-old midfielder fired in a free-kick off the post before heading down for Omar Marmoush to level just three minutes later.

City were rampant after the break as De Bruyne teed up Mateo Kovacic on 47 minutes to complete the comeback.

Goalkeeper Ederson provided his fourth Premier League assist of the season for James McAtee to make it 4-2 before Nico O’Reilly’s sweet strike rounded off the scoring.

The victory lifts Pep Guardiola’s men back into the top four, with the top five in the Premier League this season qualifying for the Champions League thanks to the strong performance of English sides in the European competition.

EPL fixtures: Liverpool host West Ham as Newcastle face Man United

Forest remain in third and on course for their first taste of Europe’s elite competition since they were holders in 1980.

However, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have lost their last two games to allow the chasing pack back onto their tails.

Aston Villa’s Champions League run this season may have just days left in it as they trail Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) 3-1 after the first leg of their quarter-final in the French capital.

Unai Emery’s men are making a charge to get back into the competition next season after maintaining their winning Premier League run with a 3-0 victory at already-relegated Southampton despite Marco Asensio having two penalties saved by Aaron Ramsdale.

Villa climb above Chelsea into fifth, just one point behind City.

Leicester City scored their first league goals since January to snap a nine-game losing run, but a 2-2 draw at Brighton still did little to help the Foxes’ hopes of survival.

The Star