STEVEN GERRARD'S Aston Villa had an impossible act to follow after the club paid tribute to their 1982 European Cup winning team of legends prior to kick-off.
Ollie Watkins thought he had done his bit to send the club's former heroes home happy when he fired Villa in front with 21 minutes remaining.
But the home side couldn't hold on to their slender lead and Palace equalised with nine minutes left through substitute Jeffrey Schlupp, who reacted quickest to Marc Guehi's knockdown.
In the end a draw was a fair result as Palace finally scored at Villa Park for the first time in five minutes to remain one point and one place above Villa just outside the top ten.
However, it took a timely save from Jack Butland in stoppage time to keep out Lucas Digne's stoppage time effort as it headed for the top corner of his net.
Before Ollie Watkins fired wide with only Butland to beat as Villa threw everything at grabbing a late winner.
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Earlier, Danny Ings had passed up a trio of chances and it looked as if the game was petering out into a goalless stalemate.
But Gerrard's decision to replace defensive midfielder Marvelous Nakamba with Jacob Ramsey had an immediate pay off as the home side took the lead three minutes later.
Digne dug out a deep cross to the back post and Guehi appeared to lose his bearings and was facing the wrong way when Watkins crashed the ball past Butland, with his right foot.
Palace argued the defender had been fouled by referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR disagreed and a livid Patrick Vieira was booked for his protests.
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However the visitors had the last word when Mings could only half clear a free kick and when the ball was delivered back into the box, Gueho nodded down for Schlupp to steal in and finish expertly.
That goal and Butland's heroics were enough to earn Palace a hard-fought point to mark their 500th Premier League game.
See how the action unfolded
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