- Manchester City lived up to their role as favorites in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Champions League and beat Copenhagen 3-1 away.
- In his first CL game of the season, Kevin De Bruyne leads the Citizens to victory with a goal and two assists.
- In the other game of the evening, Real Madrid struggled to a 1-0 away win at Leipzig.
Kevin De Bruyne has been back on the football field since the beginning of January after an almost six-month absence due to injury. The Manchester City playmaker didn’t need any warm-up time on his return. He collected the same number of scorer points in 6 games. In Copenhagen he returned to the “premier class stage” – and delivered straight away.
The Belgian provided the decisive moments for the dominant guests. He pulled the strings in midfield and was there when needed. No wonder De Bruyne was also involved in all of Man City’s goals:
- 10th minute: Attack from the right. Phil Foden plays the ball into the interface, where De Bruyne uses it flatly from a less than optimal angle.
- 45. +1. Minute: This time De Bruyne shines not with technical finesse, but with will. Thanks to his strong assertiveness, he tipped the ball to Bernardo Silva, who made it 2-1.
- 90. +2. Minute: One-two between Foden and De Bruyne. The Belgian goes back, the Englishman finishes without any problems.
The 32-year-old could have scored even further, but his shots from distance (54th) or from a free kick (87th) were too harmless. Erling Haaland, however, remained completely unlucky. The Norwegian missed a few chances – some spectacular, some unfortunate. But that didn’t matter because of the confident 3-1 win in the end.
Ederson with a buck
Magnus Mattsson provided the only Danish highlight in the 34th minute. After a mistake by City goalie Ederson, who played the ball directly into the feet of an opponent, the ball came to Mattsson via a detour. Without hesitation, he finished straight away and beautifully flicked the ball into the net to make it 1-1. At least the best goal of the evening belonged to Copenhagen.
However, Manchester was not impressed by this. The guests continued to play their game, ultimately achieving 75 percent possession of the ball and laying the foundation for a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
This is how it goes
The second leg will take place in Manchester on March 6th. Turning the deficit around will be a Herculean task for Copenhagen. The remaining first legs will take place beforehand, with Lazio – Bayern and PSG – Real Sociedad continuing on Wednesday.