Kevin de Bruyne did not know how to react to Micah Richards ’ praise after helping Manchester City reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.
De Bruyne set up Erling Haaland ’s goal as City drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich on Wednesday night to progress 4-1 on aggregate. In an incident-packed game, Haaland blazed a penalty over the crossbar before blasting into the top corner on the counter-attack to crush Bayern’s hopes.
Joshua Kimmich levelled on the night from the penalty spot after a second controversial call for handball, but it was not enough for the hosts, who were beaten 3-0 in the first leg. Thomas Tuchel was sent to the stands for protesting late on as City secured a semi-final against defending champions Real Madrid.
After the match De Bruyne was selected to give an interview to American broadcaster CBS Sports. That meant taking questions from Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher and Richards – and one of those pundits was overly excited to speak with the midfielder.
“Kevin, can you talk me through your form at the moment – it’s devastating!” Richards asked with a huge grin on his face.
Slightly embarrassed, he replied: “Errr, thank you.” After being instructed not to be shy by Richards, De Bruyne gave a modest answer about his recent performances.
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“I don’t know,” he said. “The season is so long, obviously there are moments where it’s a little bit less. But I feel good, I’m very happy that the last few years I’ve had no injuries whatsoever, I’m available.
“I think that the team is on good form and I’m flowing with them. I’ve tried to create as many chances as possible and Erling is scoring sometimes – no, he scores all the time, obviously. I’m very happy with the form and with the team. We need to keep going, it’s a tough end to the season but it’s fun.”
Bayern made things tough for City, but failed to take their chances and were punished. Pep Guardiola’s side will play Real in the last four next month – the team who beat them 6-5 on aggregate at the same stage of the competition last season.
"We go again, we go again. We know Bayern is top and I think in both games there are moments you're going to suffer,” De Bruyne added. “But as a team we defended really well, you can't stop them for 90 minutes but in the difficult moments we were there as a team.
"At the right moments we had our chances, scoring for 1-0 changed it all and I'm very proud of this team, we did very well against a top class team. Very happy to go back to the semis. I don't feel any different to last year.
"Last year we played really well and the last five minutes of the second game changed the outcome. Obviously everyone has a different opinion. This year we will try to minimise the mistakes and defensively we are very solid. I've got confidence in our team, Real is class also so we go again and hopefully the outcome will be ours this time.”
