De Bruyne’s riding high with double
WHENManchester City revealed bold plans to conquer the Far East yesterday, they were referring to China not the East riding of Yorkshire.
Hull City still had to be beaten if Manuel Pellegrini’s side were to reach the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup, though, and they duly delivered last night.
The Premier League leaders made heavy weather of their victory, it has to be said, with three late goals finally confirming their progress at the expense of the Championship promotion chasers.
It was a rather underwhelming end to what had been a momentous day, with enough empty seats at the Etihad to suggest there is still some work to be done before City can rub shoulders with the biggest clubs in world football.
But City’s new investors know exactly what they are buying into with their £ 265million stake.
Top of the Premier League, through to the knockout stages of the Champions League for the third year in a row and now into the final four of the Capital One Cup, Pellegrini’s side are ticking over nicely.
The manager’s focus remains firmly on the pitch, not the boardroom, and last night he had the bonus of seeing David Silva play more than 80 minutes after nearly two months out with an ankle injury.
Asked about the Chinese investment, Pellegrini replied: ‘It’s a big country that wants to develop football and has a lot of trust in the way we are working as a global club. It’s important to have these kinds of partners with that amount of money.’
City’s wealth was certainly evident when you compared the two teams. Steve Bruce’s entire starting line-up was bought for not a great deal more than the £8million it cost City to sign Fabian Delph from Aston Villa in the summer.
The Hull boss was maintaining his policy of fielding a weakened team in this competition.
Last night there were seven changes from Friday’s defeat to Derby, but Bruce defended his decision afterwards.
‘It’s the first time the club have got to the quarter-final so I’ve been true to the players,’ he said. ‘Would it really make any difference when you come to Man City?’
For the most part, Hull were a match for their opponents — despite going behind in the 12th minute.
Chuba Akpom and ryan Taylor left the ball for one another in comical fashion midway inside their own half and Fernandinho fed it to Kevin De Bruyne.
The Belgian’s low shot beat Eldin Jakupovic and came back off the Hull goalkeeper’s lefthand post to Wilfried Bony. He fired first time into an empty net from 15 yards with little opposition from Moses Odubajo standing close by.
But City’s early momentum petered out and it was Hull who threatened more as the first half drew to a close. They were sensing an opportunity to capitalise on the lethargy of the home side in front of 5,000 travelling fans, without whom the Etihad would have been an even quieter place.
Indeed, Hull were right in the game until the final 10 minutes when they conceded three goals in quick succession.
Silva, who looked sprightly on his return, had already gone close twice when he crossed from the left and substitute Kelechi Iheanacho stole in between Alex Bruce and Harry Maguire to turn the ball home. It was the young Nigerian’s third goal in 11 appearances this season.
De Bruyne then seized on a poor back-header by Andrew robertson, chasing it down to touch the ball past Jakupovic.
And the Belgian soon added a second, clipping home an exquisite free-kick from the edge of the penalty box after Isaac Hayden had been penalised for handball.
There was still time for Andrew robertson to reply, racing on to a pass from Abel Hernandez and guiding the ball past Willy Caballero in added time.
‘If we never needed to know how cruel it is playing against the big boys, we just had a reminder,’ lamented Bruce, who was at least able to bring on robert Snodgrass as a substitute in the second half for his first appearance in almost 16 months due to a serious knee injury.
‘We needed to stay in the cup tie and until 81 minutes we did. By 86 minutes it was 4-0. We were punished for a couple of mistakes which was a shame because it was never a 4- 1 game.
‘Apart from the goal, I can’t really remember them making a good chance in the first half.’
Pellegrini, meanwhile, had every reason to be happy.
‘I’m very pleased because that was a difficult game against a good team who are near the top of the Championship,’ he said. ‘More than that, because we played a third game in less than a week, and we had what was a very good response from the squad.’