De Bruyne is in startling form
GUARDIOLA: LAVISH PRAISE FOR BELGIAN MIDFIELDER
Pep Guardiola hailed Kevin De Bruyne’s form “extraordinary” after the Belgian was involved in all three goals as Manchester City beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 on Tuesday to close in on the Champions League quarterfinals.
De Bruyne’s early opener was cancelled out against the run of play by Magnus Mattsson.
Bernardo Silva restored City’s lead before half-time, but they had to wait until stoppage time to add further punishment for the hosts when Phil Foden turned home De Bruyne’s cut-back.
De Bruyne was sidelined for five months by a hamstring tear suffered on the opening night of the Premier League season back in August.
But since his return last month, the 32-year-old has scored two goals and provided seven assists in seven appearances.
“Extraordinary,” said Guardiola of De Bruyne’s statistics. “The biggest players love to appear on the biggest stages.
“It’s the hour of truth when you are in the last-16 of the Champions League and we start well.”
The English champions have now won 11 consecutive games in all competitions as they remain on course to repeat last season’s treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.
Copenhagen had not played a competitive game for two months since sealing their place in the last-16 by dumping out Manchester United and Galatasaray in the group stages.
“They had a great group stage so we had to respect them,” said De Bruyne. “We started really well but I think we made one mistake and they pounced on it.
“In the second-half we created a lot of chances, could have scored more and luckily in the end we scored the third one, so it is a little bit of an advantage now.”
Jack Grealish was surprisingly handed just his second start of the year by Guardiola, but the England international lasted just 15 minutes before he pulled up with a suspected groin injury.
City were keen to build up a comfortable advantage with the second leg falling between crucial Premier League games against Manchester United and Liverpool next month and killed off the tie when Foden slammed home his 15th goal of the season