What final? It’s all a blur
KEV CAN’T RECALL DEFEAT
BRUGES V MAN CITY
5.45PM, BT SPORT
KEVIN DE BRUYNE has few bad memories of last season’s Champions League final – because he barely has any of that night in Porto.
De Bruyne suffered a sickening head injury in a collision with Antonio Rudiger, below, during Manchester City’s defeat by Chelsea.
The City playmaker suffered a fractured eye socket and broken nose and was still in his kit when he left hospital the following morning.
“I don’t remember a lot after the incident,” he said. “I remember some chances in the first half and the goal. I don’t remember how I got to the hospital.
“I remember going back in the morning to the team hotel at 10am still with my City kit on. It’s not the best thing that ever happened but you get on with it.”
De Bruyne is also hazy about meeting Khaldoon Al Mubarak the following morning when the City chairman told him he would win the Champions League for them one day.
“I think he spoke to the team in the evening or the morning, I’ve no idea,” said the Belgium star. “He just said he was happy with what I contributed to the team in the year.
“He said some positive words like we’ll be back, we’ll be fighting again to win the trophy. It was nice to hear that from the chairman because it was a big blow.”
De Bruyne, 30, understands why critics say City must lift the Champions League to be considered a great side, but he is satisfied with three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and five League Cups.
“In the past six years we’ve been one time in the last 16, the other five times the quarter-final or better so we’re always competing,” he said.
“We’ve not managed to win it, but we are trying. Hopefully in my period here we can get one.
“Does it define your legacy? For people outside maybe. I’m happy with what we’ve done for the last six years.”
De Bruyne has started six of City’s last seven games and feels sharper after damaging his ankle ligaments at Euro 2020.
He is excited about playing Bruges tonight in his first club match in his homeland since he left Genk in January 2012 to join Chelsea aged 20.
He feels Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski should win this year’s Ballon d’Or ahead of him and his City team-mates “for what he’s done in the last two years”.