BY KEV! off flying Foxes and puts Pep back in hunt
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20 minutes approaching. Then, with 69 minutes gone, De Bruyne made the kind of decisive intervention all great players are capable of.
He surged down the right flank and whipped a ball into the penalty area that was gift-wrapped for Gabriel Jesus at the far post.
Hunger
The Brazilian forced the ball home but the goal was a personal triumph for the Belgian – head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch.
City had started the game with a hunger that suggested they were intent on closing the gap on Liverpool, who were winning their own battle in Qatar. But while they threatened with Riyad Mahrez in electrifying form and De Bruyne a tour de force in midfield, Leicester quickly reminded Guardiola that they aren’t Liverpool’s closest challengers for nothing.
The first half-hour proved a carbon copy of City’s previous Premier League outing at the Etihad when they were ripped apart on the break by Manchester United’s front three.
This time, though, City were faced with a lone Leicester threat in Jamie Vardy. But Guardiola’s twin centrebacks Nicolas Otamendi and makeshift defender Fernandinho still struggled to contain the striker’s threat. Raheem Sterling, Mahrez and Jesus all had early chances with the best falling for De Bruyne, who fired a fierce drive against the base of the post.
Flaw
But it was Leicester who drew first blood with a classic counter-attack which exposed the flaw that continually surfaces when City play against ultrafast raiders such as Vardy.
City lost possession deep in Leicester’s half and in the blink of an eye Vardy had raced onto a cute Harvey Barnes pass before lifting the ball over Ederson to put the Foxes ahead. Vardy could have scored again on another lightning raid but City responded by drawing level, Mahrez seeing his shot deflected off Caglar Soyuncu and wrong-footing Kaspar Schmeichel.
And after De Bruyne had seen a thunderbolt drive beaten away by Schmeichel, City went ahead after a VAR penalty review.
Ricardo Pereira caught Sterling as he jinked into the box and Ilkay Gundogan clinically tucked away the spot-kick.
After making City’s crucial third, De Bruyne limped off to a hero’s reception – but the hug from Guardiola was a more telling reward for his brilliance.