It later emerged that he was injured but, had it been a simple, ruthless hooking, he could not have complained after 45 woeful minutes against Southampton; Kevin De Bruyne had been unusually sloppy and unusually ineffective against the Saints. It had not been a pretty few weeks for the Belgian, with a deservedly saved penalty against Everton being followed by much toil for little reward in the Nou Camp. De Bruyne returned with an eye-catching cameo against West Brom but during the first half against Barcelona at the Etihad, he cut a peripheral figure, powerless to either halt the seemingly unstoppable force of the Spaniards or rouse his own creativity.
It was little wonder that De Bruyne was a peripheral figure in those opening exchanges – relegated to a wide role by a combination of his abject performance against Southampton and City’s cruise against West Brom with David Silva in a central partnership with Ilkay Gundogan. As the camera panned to the red-faced, shell-shocked man famously dubbed a ‘£60m reject’ on one unforgettable Daily Mirror back page, the commentator said: “City need so much more from him.” He had touched the ball seven times in 40 exhausting minutes.
Nobody knew that more than Pep Guardiola, who made the simple switch to move De Bruyne central and watched a lost boy become a force of nature, eradicating all lingering doubts about his place among Europe’s finest No. 10s as his drive, accuracy and sheer brilliance played a huge part in Manchester City wrestling control of the match. From seven touches in 40 minutes to 35 touches in the next 49 minutes, swapping anonymity for the limelight and absolutely thriving in the glare.
“Kevin helped us a lot as a second striker,” was Guardiola’s post-game understatement. Helped us? He captured near-perfection in that role, where the very best somehow combine dynamism with calmness; it’s a difficult trick to pull off. Think Steven Gerrard in his pomp – driving forward, tackling back, barely losing the ball and yet stretching and testing defenders. To move the ball quickly and accurately and yet creatively against the high press of Barcelona takes a special kind of footballer. Quick enough to be potent in a counter-attack but astute enough to make the right decisions on the overload, De Bruyne is seemingly made for nights like these.
There were other outstanding performers in a City shirt – Gundogan was the Bill to De Bruyne’s Ben in that breathtaking second half, Raheem Sterling was dangerous throughout and Sergio Aguero delivered the kind of striker’s performance that needed no caveat from his manager – but it was the Belgian who announced to a worldwide audience that he belongs in the most vaunted football company. This was a game-changer.
There’s a steely ambition and coolness to De Bruyne that looks at odds with his appearance as a perpetually embarrassed schoolboy – he’s the potential superstar that still looks like he should have posters on his own wall. After that sublime performance at the heart of a famous victory, it’s actually far more difficult to imagine him as a middle-aged man than a Champions League winner.
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