Bristol City beat Crystal Palace in impressive friendly performance

The Robins showed excellent resilience in defence, keeping the UEFA Conference League champions silent for all 90 minutes and fully deserved their win.

Luke McNally, making his first senior start since February 2025 after an ACL injury, got the opening goal, before Scott Twine with a trademark free-kick made it two.

The visitors looked formidable going forward, forcing Palace shot stopper Walter Benitez off his line many times, and drawing four saves from the Argentinian.

The home side were not without their merits, however, as they created well across the match, but lacked the finishing touch that City had found.

The Reds got off to a blazing start, with Brian De Keersmaecker, making his first start since his deadline day arrival, nearly threading through Twine inside the first minute, before Palace keeper Benitez narrowly beat out the Englishman.

Jed Wallace shook the side netting inside the first five minutes, after his shot from just outside of the six yard box went narrowly wide of Benitez’s left hand upright.

The Robins early pressure paid off, as De Keersmacker’s freekick from the left hand corner found the head of McNally, who fired the visitors into an early lead.

After early domination from Bristol City, Crystal Palace took back control of the match, though attacking output was not in store for the home side, with the visitors still creating the better chances.

That would change shortly, as the Eagles kicked off a string of chances, as the match heated up around the 25 minutes mark.

Eddie Nketiah fired just wide twice in the space of 10 minutes, as his side looked to be in the ascendancy, with left back Tyrick Mitchell also missing narrowly in that time.

City would nearly double their lead close to half time, as a goalmouth scramble resulted in the ball falling to left-winger Yu Hirakawa at the back post, who would have made it two from close range, if not for a super stop from Benitez.. But they went into the half 1-0 up against Crystal Palace, after a resolute defensive showing.

After the break, Bristol City quickly doubled their lead through a sensational freekick from midfielder Twine, who saw his strike from 30 yards out curl over the wall and into the back of the net, to the delight of the travelling City fans behind the goal.

Just as in the first half, Bristol’s goal was answered by Palace pressure. Palace captain Will Hughes saw his shot from inside the penalty area fly over the bar just before the hour mark.

Ten minutes later, Eagles forward Evann Guessand would miss in almost identical fashion, leaving the game still firmly in Bristol hands.

Continuing the barrage, Palace’s Dwight McNeil found left-wingback Ben Chilwell through a looping right-to-left diagonal.

Chilwell was met swiftly by the advancing Sam Tickle, the City goalkeeper smothering the ball well, and snuffing out yet another Palace chance.

Skubala's men nearly made it three late on, as substitute Sam Greenwood slid through striker Dom Ballard, who saw his chipped shot swatted away by Benitez.

With just more than five minutes left in normal time, Greenwood’s freekick from just outside the 18 yard box was met low by Benitez, who kept his side from further embarrassment late on.

With the game now out of reach for the home side, the action decelerated until reaching a complete stop, with Bristol City outlasting their Premier League opponents.

Bristol City: Starting XI: Tickle(GK), Pring, Atkinson, De Keersmaecker, Hirakawa, Williams (C), Twine, McNally, Wallace, Tanner, Ballard

Crystal Palace Starting XI: Benitez(GK), Mingueza, Lerma, Disasi, Mitchell, Chilwell, Hughes (C), Wharton, McNeil, Guessand, Nketiah

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