Vieira: Draw fair for Crystal Palace and Man United
Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira felt a draw was what his side deserved after Nigeria born Michael Olise netted a late free-kick to earn the Londoners a point against Manchester United at Selhurst Park on Wednesday evening.
The former Reading man, just as time was running out, bent home a brilliant effort via the underside of the crossbar to earn the home side a share of the spoils, cancelling out Bruno Fernandes' first-half opener.
The latter had given United the lead shortly before half-time and it looked like being enough to earn them a 10th successive win.
The Portuguese international curled home a clinical effort from just inside the penalty area, marking his second goal in as many games. Palace, though, refused to throw the towel in, salvaging a much-needed point through a moment of individual brilliance.
And a point was what Palace chief Vieira believed his side were worthy of, praising his players for the "pressure" they put United under inside the final quarter of an hour of the contest.
"I think we deserved the point," Vieira told Sky Sports. "Really challenging against a really good side. We found it difficult to close them down but we managed to stay in the game.
"In the last 15 minutes we put pressure on them. Michael scored that free-kick. It was tough, we worked hard and we got rewarded. I saw organisation, really good team spirit, communication. We kept our discipline and that helped us stay in the game.
"We had that Wilfried [Zaha] run at the end. If it was a different player [than Aaron Wan-Bissaka] he wouldn't catch him.
"That was a tough game against a good side. We needed luck to stay in the game, but we provoked that luck."
Palace welcomed United to Selhurst Park on a run of three successive defeats in league and cup, scoring just one goal in that run, meaning they were under a degree of pressure to stop the rot.
"The process takes time," added Vieira. "People are waiting for us to win games because of our talent. But the talent isn't enough. The process allows us to be competitive.
