Marc Guehi goes from villain to hero to rescue point for Crystal Palace against Newcastle
Crystal Palace’s Daniel Munoz (left) celebrates after scoring their late equaliser
Daniel Munoz’s stoppage-time header grabbed a precious point for Crystal Palace against a listless Newcastle at Selhurst Park.
Newcastle, who spent most of the summer transfer window trying in vain to prise Marc Guehi away from Crystal Palace but the England international had looked to be their unlikely match winner at Selhurst Park with an own goal 10 minutes into the second half.
But the former Chelsea defender redeemed himself with a deep cross into the box and Munoz, who had missed two very good chances earlier in the game rose highest to head past Nick Pope to grab a deserved point.
In a first-half where Eddie Howe’s created nothing in attack it was ironic that the unfortunate Guehi was unable to get out of the way of Anthony Gordon’s low cross from a well-worked free-kick involving Lewis Hall and Sandro Tonali.
Marc Guehi goes from villain to hero to rescue point for Crystal Palace against Newcastle
Newcastle United’s Anthony Gordon celebrates after Marc Guehi’s own goal
In a match low on quality, Palace should have been ahead at half time but were made to rue a missed chance by Munoz who fired wide following a sparkling run and cross by Ismaila Sarr.
The home side pressed hard for an equaliser and Munoz was denied by the long legs of the giant Dan Burn who acrobatically blocked his shot on the line after Nick Pope blocked a Sarr shot with his body.
From the resulting corner JP Mateta fired narrowly over the bar and that appeared to be their only real chance of a disappointing second half as the away side looked to be closing out for the three points comfortably.
However, Munoz rose brilliantly to head down Guehi’s cross in the 94th minute and Pope was unable to stop the ball finding the bottom corner.
Palace next face fellow strugglers Ipswich on Tuesday and victory against the Tractor Boys would take Oliver Glasner’s side out of the bottom three.
It would have been Newcastle’s first win at Selhurst Park in four years and this less than vintage performance was hardly the right reaction from Monday’s shock home defeat by West Ham.