'We gave away two points' – Pep Guardiola frustrated as Manchester City gift late penalty to Crystal Palace

Pep Guardiola looks dejected after Manchester City concede a late equaliser to Crystal Palace in the Premier League in December 2023.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola says his side did not deserve to beat Crystal Palace after they "gave away" a late penalty in Saturday's 2-2 draw at the Etihad.

City looked in complete control with 15 minutes left after goals from Jack Grealish and Rico Lewis, but Palace pulled one back through Jean-Philippe Mateta with just over a quarter of an hour left to play and won a penalty deep into added time.

Phil Foden fouled Mateta and with 95 minutes on the clock, Michael Olise converted from the spot to leave Guardiola holding his head on the sidelines.

Last season's treble winners have now let leads slip against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham in recent weeks and Guardiola said: "It's not bad luck, it's deserved. We gave away two points. When you give away this penalty, you deserve it.

"You see the chances we created and conceded it's quite similar to all this season apart from the game, but we are not able to close the games. That is the feeling.

"At the end, be patient and don't concede transitions and don't concede like we have done in seven or eight years in these type of games.

"But of course in the first action they run and score a goal and in the last minute we give them [a penalty]. In the 18-yard box you have to be careful and we weren't. We don't deserve to win."

That was despite that fact that Palace had only two shots on target across the whole game, both of which were goals.

Speaking on Sky Sports, Guardiola added: "In the 18-yard box, you cannot behave the way we behaved with the penalty. When this happens, you are going to drop points. 

"So simple. The players [were] running incredible, pressing good, playing good, because it's so difficult having ten players there, so we know that and we were patient and we did it.

"But after what we have done in the last action,  what can we do? Accept it and improve."

Saturday's draw leaves City in fourth place, four points behind leaders Liverpool with one more match played than the Reds.

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Ben Hayward
Weekend editor

Ben Hayward is a European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America - and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.