Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne starred in City’s 2-1 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford and former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore believes that the Belgian can challenge Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for the mantle of world’s best player.
De Bruyne was fantastic throughout the match causing Manchester United plenty of problems with his pace, dribbling, passing and direct style of play. Stan Collymore was left very impressed with the Manchester City midfielder’s performance:
“He found pockets of space behind Fellaini and Pogba,” Collymore said. “He made them go backwards rather than forward.”
“City can go to the last four in the Champions League where you’re talking about territory usually claimed by Ronaldo, Messi and co.
“Do City have one of those guys to stand up and be a guaranteed match winner? Not yet, but watch out for KDB this season, he may end up being the best of the rest.”
Manchester City start their Champions League campaign against Bundesliga side Borussia Monchengladbach.
Guardiola's City buoyant for visit of Moenchengladbach
Pep Guardiola says Manchester City are not yet ready to compete with Europe's elite but his side will be confident of opening their Champions League campaign with victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach on Tuesday.
The Spaniard could hardly have started his City reign more impressively with four consecutive Premier League wins and a crushing Champions League playoff defeat of Steaua Bucharest. But Guardiola, twice a Champions League winner as coach of Barcelona, has quickly moved to dampen expectations.
"Until now, in the Premier League it has been okay -- but to compete against the best clubs in Europe, in this moment with the way we are playing, we are not able to," Guardiola said.
The comment was all the more surprising as it came after Saturday's impressive 2-1 victory at Jose Mourinho's Manchester United. Even without top striker Sergio Aguero, who was suspended but will be available on Tuesday, City oozed confidence.
The same cannot be said of Moenchengladbach, who City beat twice in the group phase last season before going on to reach the semi-finals for the first time.The Bundesliga side were beaten 3-1 at SC Freiburg over the weekend, interrupting what had been a bright start to the season for Andre Schubert's men.
Fourth in the Bundesliga last season, Moenchengladbach had crushed BSC Young Boys 9-2 on aggregate in the Champions League play-offs and opened their domestic campaign with a 2-1 victory over Bayer Leverkusen.
