Kevin De Bruyne is so usually Manchester City’s man for the massive event. He delivered once more firstly of the Champions League’s knockout stage.
By scoring one purpose and having a hand in two others, the Belgium playmaker impressed City to a 3-1 win at FC Copenhagen within the first leg of the spherical of 16 on Tuesday because the English champions resumed their quest to retain their European crown.
It’s an English-record 9 straight wins within the Champions League for City stretching again to final season, and 10 victories in a row in all competitions over the previous two months.
It goes to take one thing particular to cease Pep Guardiola’s defending champions.
Only a careless mistake from goalkeeper Ederson Moraes, which led to Copenhagen’s equalizer within the thirty fourth minute, prevented City from taking an much more commanding lead into the second leg in Manchester in three weeks.
Still, few will give the Danish champions hope of turning this round.
Not with De Bruyne seemingly again in prime kind already after lacking 5 months with a hamstring damage sustained on the opening day of the season.
“The biggest players appear in the biggest stages,” City supervisor Pep Guardiola mentioned, when requested about De Bruyne’s show. “It’s the moment of truth when you are in the last 16 of the Champions League.”
De Bruyne’s positive making up for misplaced time, with 9 purpose involvements in six video games since his return.
“I’m getting there, feeling good and the level is good enough for the moment,” he mentioned modestly. “I’m simply attempting to play good soccer and revel in myself. It has been a protracted five-to-six months however I’m simply pleased to attempt to assist the workforce win video games.”
De Bruyne scored the opening goal at atmospheric Parken Stadium with a low finish into the far corner in the 10th minute after running onto Phil Foden’s pass on the right side of the area.
Copenhagen, without a competitive match in two months because of the Danish league’s midseason break, was outplayed in the first half — by the 20th minute, City had enjoyed 85% possession — but still managed to pull level in the 34th after Ederson’s pass out from his area went astray.
It was intercepted by Mohamed Elyounoussi, whose shot was blocked by City defender Ruben Dias. The ball flew toward Copenhagen midfielder Magnus Mattsson, who curled home a first-time shot from edge of the area in a memorable way to mark not only his Copenhagen debut but his first ever Champions League game.
City retook the lead in the first minute of first-half stoppage time. While the build-up wasn’t pretty, the finish from Bernardo Silva certainly was.
De Bruyne overran the ball and lunged to make a tackle, inadvertently sending the ball flying into the path of Silva in the area. As the goalkeeper came out, Silva deftly flicked the ball with his left foot up and into the far corner.
The build-up to the third goal in second-half stoppage time was much easier on the eye and again it involved De Bruyne, who ran onto Foden’s pass down the inside right channel and cut the ball back to the England midfielder, who slotted home.
“There’s no better player in the world at passing the ball,” Foden said of De Bruyne.
There was a huge gulf in quality between the English and European champions and a team playing in the Champions League’s round of 16 for only the second time — and the first time since 2010-11.
City wasn’t even thrown off by an early injury to winger Jack Grealish, who lasted just 21 minutes of his first game in more than a month before being forced off with a suspected right groin injury.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
