Kevin de Bruyne’s stunning goal helped Manchester City get a draw from their Champions League first leg against Real Madrid – but does he get the credit he deserves?
Vinicius Jr crashed Real into the lead at the Bernabeu last week, with De Bruyne’s 25-yard strike levelling the semi-final going into Wednesday’s second leg at Etihad Stadium.
The Belgium midfielder has been consistently one of the best players in Europe since joining City from Wolfsburg in 2015.
The 31-year-old has scored 64 goals and made 101 assists in 237 Premier League games for City. Only Lionel Messi and Thomas Muller have made more assists across Europe’s top five leagues in that time.
“I think De Bruyne still needs a defining moment on this stage,” said journalist James Horncastle on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Euro Leagues Show.
“As big as City are in the Premier League and as much as Pep Guardiola brings the world’s attention on City, they are not a legacy club.
“It is harder for a City player to create consensus around football journalists. A lot of time the genius and style of play is associated with Guardiola.”
De Bruyne has scored 14 Champions League goals for City, with a club record 11 of them coming in knockout games.
French journalist Julien Laurens said: “City needed De Bruyne to step up in the second half because he was quite neutral in the first half.
“He just popped up in a moment that maybe could take his team to another final.
“Real Madrid were set up to prevent De Bruyne from having a big impact on the game. Yet he stays in the game because at some point he knows something will come to him.
“Mentally you have to be very strong to stay in your game until that moment and I think his celebration showed it. He ran to the corner where the City fans were and he clearly exploded. This is what big players do.”
De Bruyne has been named Premier League player of the season twice and finished third in the 2022 Ballon d’Or.
City team-mate Erling Haaland was recently named the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) footballer of the year.
Spanish journalist Guillem Balague said: “I voted for De Bruyne as player of the year. But it is difficult to pick him. It doesn’t come natural to say De Bruyne, the best player of Manchester City and the Premier League.
“In Spain he is seen as good but not as in Real Madrid and Barcelona should be fighting for him. That’s partly because we have had a few like De Bruyne in recent years and secondly because his manager is a work of art at City, playing the best football we’ve seen but it is not down to one player doing marvellous things in different parts of the pitch.
“They all have their square of influence and Kevin de Bruyne has not been allowed to come out of that. In that area of influence he is very good but not in the kind of amazing way where we say he has to be given the Ballon d’Or.”
How can Vinicius be the best in the world?
Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr, who scored the opener in the first leg, has become one of Europe’s best players in the last few seasons.
This season alone the 22-year-old Brazilian has scored 23 goals and assisted another 21.
A winger with remarkable dribbling ability, his strike last week was a brilliant hit from 25 yards.
Laurens said: “If he starts scoring goals like that on top of everything else he does really well then he becomes an even bigger problem for all the teams that will face him.
“It was fantastic and maybe it is the next evolution for him on how he improves even more.”
Only Haaland (13 – 12 goals, one assist) has been involved in more Champions League goals than Vinicius this season (12 – seven goals, five assists).
Balague said: “If he does what he is doing so far with 20-odd assists this season and more goals than he has ever scored in a season it is fine.
“If he can intervene and be influential in different parts of the pitch it takes him to being the best in the world.
“But he has to do it for a few full seasons.”
When Vinicius first joined Real from Flamengo in 2018, he had bags of skill but his finishing let him down.
In his first three seasons he hit a combined 14 goals in all competitions, but he has netted 55 in almost two seasons since.
Horncastle said: “One of the things that should never go under the radar with Vinicius is the chance that Real Madrid took on him.
“They spent a lot of money when they signed him – more than £40m – when nobody had heard of him and they signed him straight from Brazil and over time they have developed him and we are talking now about a player who is top three in the world.”
