Kevin De Bruyne
Kevin De Bruyne is enjoying the “privilege” of chasing down a historic treble with Manchester City and believes the Blues can achieve the holy grail of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League this season. Before that City will aim to reach the FA Cup final by beating Sheffield United at Wembley on Saturday and they have a Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid to look forward to. There is a feeling they have hit form at the right time to compete on all three fronts.
Kevin De Bruyne said: “Everything is doable, but it doesn’t mean it makes it any easier. It’s a privilege to play in all these competitions. We can’t look at Arsenal [yet]. We’ve got another semi-final against Sheffield [United] and I want to win. We need to rest now and prepare ourselves. We have other priorities on Saturday and then we can concentrate on next week. Obviously, we’re going to try and win everything – it’s hard but it’s a privilege to be able to fight for everything.”
If City beat the Blades on Saturday it will mean a first FA Cup since beating Watford 6-0 in 2019 and De Bruyne is determined to add another medal in that competition to his collection.
Kevin De Bruyne said: “I’ve only won the FA Cup once and I want to win it again.”
If they reach Wembley again then the final – against Manchester United or Brighton – will take place on June 3. Before then will come the rematch against Real Madrid, who so dramatically knocked them out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage last season. City conceded twice in injury-time in the Bernabeu last season to throw away a place in the final, with Karim Benzema then scoring the winning goal in extra time, but De Bruyne believes City have learnt from those mistakes.
Kevin De Bruyne said: “One of the best teams. A lot of respect for them – top, top team and players. We’ve played a lot of times against them, and they’ve always been good games. I wouldn’t expect anything less. We’ll need to be at our best to beat them. Last year, we played really well, made some mistakes but this year we will try to minimise the mistakes. I’ve got confidence in our team. We go again and hopefully the outcome will be ours this time.”
One of the reasons for City’s stunning run of form and the confidence in the camp at the moment is Erling Haaland’s hot streak. He missed a first-half penalty against Bayern Munich in the Allianz Arena, but struck after half-time to make it 14 goals in his previous seven games, all of which he has found the back of the net in.
Kevin De Bruyne said: “Obviously we want him to score, he concentrated on the next action and whenever he gets another opportunity he can score. I feel really good. I’m very happy that in the last two years I’ve had no injuries whatsoever. I’m flowing with the team, try to create as many chances as possible. I’m very happy with the form of the team and we need to keep going – it’s a tough end to the season but it’s fun.”
