Champions League: De Bruyne Leads Manchester To 3-1 Win Over Copenhagen

Kevin De Bruyne was in an impressive form to lead Manchester City to a 3-1 win over Copenhagen in the first leg of the round of 16 tie at the Parken Stadium.

The Belgian midfielder has been in an excellent form since returning from injury and he continued from where he stopped against Everton last weekend with an assist and a goal.

He has now been involved in eight goals since he returned from injury last month, scoring two goals and recording six assist.

De Bruyne gave the visitors an early lead in the tenth minute with a low strike following a through ball from Foden.

Magnus Mattsson took advantage of Ederson’s mistake to slam home the equaliser in the 34th minute.

Bernardo Silva restored Man City’s lead on the stroke of half time to make it 2-1.

Phil Foden put the gloss on the scoreline with the third goal in the 91st minute to seal a healthy advantage for Manchester City going into the second leg.

Manchester City coach, Pep Guardiola was full of praise for Kevin De Bruyne following his exceptional performance since his return from injury.

Guardiola said, “The biggest players love to appear in the biggest stages.

“It’s the hour of truth when you are in the last 16 of the Champions League and we start well.”

Manchester City have now won 11 consecutive matches in all competitions and are on course for another historic treble this season.

Guardiola added: “Today was perfect, They were patient in the right moments. Really good.

“I’m really proud of the team. The third goal helped us a lot. Hopefully we can finish it off at home and go to the next game.”

Kevin De Bruyne also hailed his teammates for taking an healthy advantage into the second leg.

“They had a great group stage so we had to respect them,” said De Bruyne. “We started really well but I think we made one mistake and they pounced on it.

“We played a really good game. In the second half we created a lot of chances, could have scored more and luckily in the end we scored the third one, so it is a little bit of an advantage now.”

The second leg is billed for March 6 at the Etihad Stadium.

In the other Champions League fixture on Tuesday night, Real Madrid earned a hard-fought 1-0 win over RB Leipzig in Germany.

Brahim Diaz scored the only goal of the encounter and Real Madrid goalkeeper, Andriy Lunin made series of saves to keep Real Madrid in the game.

On Wednesday, PSG will take on Real Sociedad at the Parc des Princes, while Lazio will welcome Bayern Munich to Italy at the Stadio Olimpico.