The 24-year-old striker, who moved to the London club from Aston Villa in a mid-season loan deal, struck in the 90th minute at Selhurst Park. Last month, Guessand helped defending champions Ivory Coast reach the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals, where they lost to Egypt.

AFP Sport highlights African headline-makers in the major European leagues:

ENGLAND

EVANN GUESSAND (Crystal Palace), TOLU AROKODARE (Wolves)

Guessand scored to secure just a second win in 16 games for the Eagles after Arokodare had missed a first-half penalty for Wolves. Nigerian striker Arokodare's spot-kick was saved by Dean Henderson. Guessand produced a fine finish at the near post to ease any lingering fears of his side being dragged into a relegation battle.

ALEX IWOBI (Fulham)

Iwobi created Fulham's opening goal for Raul Jimenez and then rounded off the scoring himself in a 3-1 win at Sunderland. The Nigeria international coolly chipped beyond Robin Roefs to register his first goal of 2026.

SPAIN

ADEMOLA LOOKMAN (Atletico Madrid)

Nigeria international Lookman continued his superb start to life in the Spanish capital by scoring his first La Liga goal in a 4-2 win over Espanyol. The forward has netted four times in his first six games for the club across all competitions.

ERIC BAILLY (Real Oviedo)

Ivorian centre-back Bailly scored his first goal for Oviedo since arriving at the Asturian club last year in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Real Sociedad. Bailly rescued a point by rising highest to nod home a 93rd-minute equaliser from a corner.

PAPE GUEYE (VILLARREAL)

The Senegal midfielder converted a penalty deep in first-half added time to give third-placed Villarreal a 2-1 home win over lowly Valencia. Gueye scored in extra-time to give Senegal victory over hosts Morocco last month in the Africa Cup of Nations final.

GERMANY

YAN DIOMANDE (RB Leipzig)

Yan Diomande was only credited with one assist, but he was responsible for creating both of Christoph Baumgartner's goals in RB Leipzig’s 2-2 Bundesliga home draw with Borussia Dortmund. After 20 minutes, Diomande laid off a low pass for Baumgartner to tap home. Shortly before the break, the 19-year-old winger again bamboozled the visiting defence. He found David Raum, who squared the ball for Baumgartner to score again. In his first season in top-flight football, Diomande has eight goals and six assists in 22 league games.

FRANCE

MARSHALL MUNETSI (Paris FC)

The Zimbabwean, on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers, scored his first goal for Ligue 1 strugglers Paris FC in a 1-1 draw at mid-table Toulouse. Set up by Alimani Gory, Marshall Munetsi found the bottom left corner of the net with a shot from the centre of the box.

E. Guessand

Achievements