De Bruyne: Win planned in 15 minutes

KEVIN DE BRUYNE has revealed it took just 15 minutes to hatch the tactical plan that humiliated Manchester United.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side beat local rivals United 3-1 in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final – with strikers Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus starting on the bench.

Guardiola’s plan to play without a recognised striker allowed them to tear into United, with De Bruyne revealing the meeting was done and dusted in a quarter of an hour.

Asked if it took a lot of preparation to play without a striker, De Bruyne said: “We did 15 minutes.That’s about it.

“But it’s not like we never did it before.We did it already, sometimes against teams who prefer to play man against man – United, I think Barcelona, the way we did it in the first year. So we’ve done it a couple of times.”

Guardiola went with a front three of Riyad Mahrez, Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva, the latter dropping deep, underpinned by a midfield trio of Rodri, De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan.

United were unable to get to grips with the system, as well as City’s superior movement and passing, conceding three goals before half-time to lose the initiative in the tie.

De Bruyne added: “We played a lot of times already that way, against

Arsenal. Obviously they tried to play man against man in the midfield, so it’s a little bit difficult for us, because wherever we ran they tried to follow us.

“With Bernardo dropping, it’s four against three in the midfield, so they have to choose what they do if they put the defender there.

“There’s more options, more space in behind. If not, Bernardo’s going to be free and that’s what we tried to exploit.We played well.They didn’t have a lot of chances and we should have scored more.”