Manchester City captain Kevin De Bruyne led his team to a remarkable five-goal comeback against Crystal Palace at the Etihad on Saturday.
Palace had led with two early goals from Eberechi Eze and Chris Richards against the run of play. But De Bruyne took the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring one and assisting the other to ensure that his side are knocking hard on the door to next season’s Champions League.
The Belgian scored a free kick in the 33rd minute to halve Palace’s lead, with Omar Marmoush bringing the game level just three minutes after. Early in the second half, De Bruyne helped put City in front when he collected the ball from Nico O’Reilly and slid it over to Kovacic, who unleashed a shot from the edge of the box into the bottom corner, sending the Etihad into raptures.
City added a fourth in the 56th minute when James McAtee ran onto City goalie Ederson’s pass, rounding Dean Henderson and passing the ball into the empty net, before O’Reilly then had a volley deflected in to round off what was an absolutely breathtaking comeback performance.
What Kevin De Bruyne said after the game
“It’s been a hard year. Having a hernia was not much fun but I’ve been pain free for the past six weeks and that’s made a big difference. It was hard but now I feel free. I’m able to do a lot of training sessions. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I want to play on. We’ll see where I can end up.
“I don’t know how I’m going to feel (about leaving City). I’ve been here for so long. My family’s been here 10 years. My kids were born in Manchester and live their whole life here. It’s going to be something different for them and I think they’re a bit scared … excited. It’s a big unknown because we don’t know what’s going to happen for the moment. I want to play good football like I did today but I’ll be fine. If I can play football and my family’s happy, I’m good.”
What City manager Pep Guardiola said
“Kevin with a free-kick changed the momentum. We scored two and after the second half started our next two goals was quick. If you see the chances that we had we could have scored eight or nine easy because we arrive in the final third, one against one with the keeper how many times? The work ethic, the way we played was really good.”
