Living on a city are only half-way there, says de Bruyne
AS ONE of a host of big names withdrawn between the interval break and the hour mark, Kevin De Bruyne was well placed to assess objectively Manchester City’s second-half display.
His verdict, delivered after City had secured a victory that kept the heat on Arsenal in the title race, was that lessons needed to be learned.
City, who had raced into a 3-0 lead in the first 25 minutes, travel to Bayern Munich this week for a
Champions League quarter-final second leg with the same 3-0 half-time lead.
And if City are to take something from this performance at the Etihad, they cannot afford to sit relaxing on a lead for one minute if they are to emerge with a last four spot.
Hard
“Getting three goals up was a great advantage but then we went a bit down in the second half and that wasn’t great,” said De Bruyne.
“We will have to go there to win and I don’t think we can speculate about keeping ahead, we just play the game we know how to play. We start again and we know it’s going to be hard.
“It’s not like 50 minutes to go and you might cover up a bit, it’s 95 minutes and a lot can happen. You’ve heard of crazy scores in many games so we’ll have to bring our A game.”
City certainly produced their A game early, blowing Leicester away with two goals from Erling Haaland and a John Stones thunderbolt in the opening quarter.
Yet the visitors will feel they had chances to actually draw the game after City boss Pep Guardiola’s mind drifted to their midweek challenge in the Allianz Arena.
A City side without both goalscorers, De Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Rodri were sloppy in letting Kelechi Iheanacho pull one back from a corner on 75 minutes.
James Maddison then had a golden chance one-on-one with Ederson but saw his shot saved and Leicester’s goalscorer hit a post in stoppage time.
City will look to the three points and a further two goals swing in their favour on goal difference even if De Bruyne does not believe the Premier League title will be decided that way.
And the fact that the goals are raining in with 27 in the last six games bodes well for the runin, according to the midfielder.
Firing
“It has been the case the most of the eight years I have been here,” he said. “But it is good to score many goals and keep a lot of people firing.” No-one is firing like Haaland whose double – the first from the penalty spot after Grealish’s cross was handled by Wilfred Ndidi and the second a superb take and finish from De Bruyne’s through ball – took him to 47 goals in 40 matches this season.