'Extraordinary' De Bruyne bosses Copenhagen to keep Man City rolling in UCL

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Pep Guardiola hailed Kevin De Bruyne’s “extraordinary” kind after the Belgian was concerned in all three objectives as Manchester Metropolis beat FC Copenhagen 3-1 on Tuesday to shut in on the Champions League quarter-finals.

De Bruyne’s early opener was cancelled out in opposition to the run of play by Magnus Mattsson.

Bernardo Silva restored Metropolis’s lead earlier than half-time, however they needed to wait till stoppage time so as to add additional punishment for the hosts when Phil Foden turned residence De Bruyne’s cut-back.

De Bruyne was sidelined for 5 months by a hamstring tear suffered on the opening night time of the Premier League season in August.

However since his return final month, the 32-year-old has scored two objectives and supplied seven assists in seven appearances.

“Extraordinary,” mentioned Guardiola of De Bruyne’s statistics. “The most important gamers love to seem within the greatest levels.

“It is the hour of fact if you end up within the final 16 of the Champions League and we begin properly.”

The English champions have now received 11 consecutive video games in all competitions as they continue to be heading in the right direction to repeat final season’s treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.

Copenhagen had not performed a aggressive recreation for 2 months since sealing their place within the final 16 by dumping out Manchester United and Galatasaray within the group levels.

“That they had an excellent group stage so we needed to respect them,” mentioned De Bruyne. “We began very well however I believe we made one mistake they usually pounced on it.

“We performed a very good recreation. Within the second half we created plenty of probabilities, may have scored extra and fortunately in the long run we scored the third one, so it’s a little little bit of a bonus now.”

Grealish harm blow

That lack of match sharpness from the Danish champions confirmed within the early levels as Metropolis stormed out of the blocks.

De Bruyne headed an excellent likelihood extensive and Kamil Grabara denied Ruben Dias with a fantastic save inside six minutes.

The previous Liverpool goalkeeper had no likelihood when De Bruyne broke the impasse on 10 minutes with a scientific low end from Foden’s move.

Jack Grealish had been surprisingly handed simply his second begin of the 12 months by Guardiola, however the England worldwide lasted simply quarter-hour earlier than he pulled up with a suspected groin harm.

Metropolis had loved practically 80 p.c possession and barely let Copenhagen inside their half for the primary 35 minutes, but have been made to pay for one second of sloppiness.

Ederson’s poor clearance was straight into the trail of Mohamed Elyounoussi and his blocked shot fell to Mattson to mark his debut with a shocking strike from outdoors the field.

Metropolis regained their composure and the lead earlier than half-time.

Mattson was unlucky as his tried clearance ricocheted off De Bruyne and completely into the trail of Silva to flick past Grabara.

The Copenhagen goalkeeper stored his facet within the tie within the early levels of the second interval with spectacular stops to disclaim De Bruyne and Doku.

Grabara then twice received a head-to-head battle with Haaland in stoppage time.

Metropolis have been eager to construct up a snug benefit with the second leg falling between essential Premier League video games in opposition to Manchester United and Liverpool subsequent month.

They usually lastly acquired the third aim that ought to kill off the tie when the in-form Foden slammed residence his fifteenth aim of the season as Metropolis prolonged their unbeaten run in European competitions to 21 video games.