UEFA Champions League English

Kevin De Bruyne lauds his compatriot after ‘perfect start’ in Seville

Man City playmaker and captain Kevin de Bruyne has fittingly showered praise on his young compatriot Erling Haaland after the striker netted a brace to inspire City to a 4-0 Champions League victory over Sevilla.

The towering Norwegian striker brilliantly intercepted De Bruyne’s cross to open the scoring after just 20 minutes, with Phil Foden following up in rapid succession to  double the score shortly after the interval.

It wasn’t long before Haaland effortlessly tapped in his second goal of the evening and his 12th so far this season in all competitions, before Ruben Dias capped it all off with a late fourth.

De Bruyne, despite being awarded the Man of the Match award in Spain, was most happy with Haaland’s performance and perfect start in the Champions League for City.

“I try to do my job and make the right movements and create the most chances I can,” admitted the skipper.

“I know one way or another Erling [Haaland] will be there. At the moment he’s scoring the goals. For him it’s a perfect start. “I think the way he has adapted to us is really good but obviously, outside of the goalscoring there’s another part of the game and that is more tough to adapt to.

“It makes it exciting if he can adapt to see the outcome. If you score that much you can get away with things. If he keeps on scoring then we know it’s a positive for us.”

City currently top Group G after the victory and the Belgian believes that with the display and convincing victory, City have made known their intentions and laid down a marker for the remainder of the group stage.

“Obviously it’s a very nice stadium to come to with the loud fans. It’s the first away game and it is very important, you have to set the tone and I think we did that today.

“It’s nice to start the group with a win.