Pep Guardiola in Tuesday hailed Kevin de Bruyne’s form “extraordinary” after the Belgian was involved in all three goals as Manchester City beat Copenhagen 3-1 to close in on the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.
De Bruyne’s early opener was canceled out against the run of play by Magnus Mattsson.
Bernardo Silva restored City’s lead before halftime, but they had to wait until stoppage-time to add further punishment for the hosts when Phil Foden turned home De Bruyne’s cutback.
Photo: Reuters
De Bruyne was sidelined for five months by a hamstring tear suffered on the opening night of the English Premier League season in August last year, but since his return last month, the 32-year-old has scored two goals and provided seven assists in seven appearances.
“Extraordinary,” Guardiola said of De Bruyne’s statistics. “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.”
The English champions have now won 11 consecutive games in all competitions as they remain on course to repeat last season’s treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.
Photo: Reuters
Copenhagen had not played a competitive game for two months since sealing their place in the round-of-16 by dumping out Manchester United and Galatasaray in the group stage.
“They had a great group stage, so we had to respect them,” De Bruyne said. “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.”
In Germany, an incredible solo goal from Brahim Diaz secured Real Madrid a 1-0 win away at RB Leipzig in their round-of-16 first leg.
Leipzig were energetic, but wasteful early on, while Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin made numerous saves after the hosts controversially had a goal disallowed for offside.
The German club were made to pay early in the second half when Diaz opened the scoring. Drafted into the side in place of the injured Jude Bellingham, Diaz danced past three Leipzig defenders before curling a shot inside the far post.
“I’m intuitive,” Diaz said of the goal. “I saw Vini [Vinicius Junior] and wanted to give it to him, but in the end I took the shot. It was a nice goal.”
Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos praised his teammate, telling Amazon Prime “a piece of individual skill decided the game.”
“If we’re honest, it could have gone in either direction,” he said.
The win was Real Madrid’s seventh in seven games this Champions League campaign and puts them in prime position to make it past the last 16 for the fourth straight season.
“It was an open match,” said Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, contending that “a lucky punch decided the game.”
Madrid traveled to Saxony without England midfielder Bellingham, who injured his ankle in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Girona.
With first-choice centerbacks Antonio Ruediger, David Alaba and Eder Militao ruled out, coach Carlo Ancelotti opted to continue midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni’s stint in central defense.
Despite their injury woes, Real sit five clear in the league and have only lost twice this season in all competitions, both times to city rivals Atletico Madrid.
The hosts thundered out of the blocks and had the ball in the net three minutes in, but the goal was ruled out for a contentious offside, with Benjamin Henrichs deemed to be obstructing the goalkeeper.
Kroos said the wrong decision had been made.
“The goalkeeper would not have got to the ball, so it was a goal,” he said.
Gulacsi told reporters he was “frustrated” by the decision, explaining “1-0 after a couple of minutes could have changed the whole game.”
“We weren’t able to dominate, but we played a good game,” Diaz said. “I’m happy to be able to help the side — we continue to show we’re a great team.”
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed