English Premier League: Manchester United lose to Crystal Palace after Wilfried Zaha brace

Manchester: Wilfried Zaha scored a brace as Crystal Palace defeated Manchester United 3-1 on Saturday (local time) in an English Premier League match at the Old Trafford Stadium. United thus slumped to defeat in their opener of the new season.

Along with Zaha, Andros Townsend scored one goal for Crystal Palace while Donny van de Beek registered the lone goal for Manchester United.

 In the match, Manchester United had 76 per cent of the ball possession as compared to 24 of Crystal Palace, still, the latter managed to win the match by creating more attacking opportunities.

The first goal of the match was registered by Andros Townsend in the seventh minute of the match. Tyrick Mitchell played an excellent ball to the left of Crystal Palace`s Jeffrey Schlupp, who in return managed to have a low cross towards the goalpost, and in the end, Townsend capitalised on the opportunity and scored the first goal.

No more goals were scored in the first half, and as a result, Crystal Palace went in with a 1-0 lead. Crystal Palace was awarded a penalty in the 69th minute of the match as Lindelof`s arm was found in an unnatural position. Ayew took a poor penalty and David de Gea was able to save the ball. However, the penalty had to be retaken as De Gea was penalised for encroachment. Zaha came up to take the penalty this time and made no mistakes, giving Crystal Palace a 2-0 lead in the 74th minute.

United got a glimmer of hope in the 80th minute as Donny van de Beek pegged one goal back for the side, bringing the scoreline 2-1 in favour of Crystal Palace.

The final goal for Crystal Palace came in the 85th minute as Zaha managed to fight off United`s Lindelof to slot the ball into the net and Palace finished with a 3-1 away victory over the hosts` Manchester United.

United will next lock horns with Brighton on Saturday, September 26 while Crystal Palace will lock horns with Everton on the same day.