Ilkay Gundogan
Ilkay Gundogan is averaging a goal or assist every 64 minutes in his last six appearances, with three trophy-defining braces at a key period of the season. His goals in the games against Leeds and Everton proved enough to get over the line in the Premier League, and his assist for Kevin De Bruyne at the Bernabeu allowed City to take a draw back to the Etihad, where they demolished Real Madrid to book a Champions League final spot. Then, in an historic Manchester derby at Wembley in the FA Cup final, Gundogan scored two lovely volleys to secure a domestic cup double 12 months on from his title heroics against Aston Villa. Despite his electric form, though, Gundogan insists he’s played better in his career – and can play even better now.
Ilkay Gundogan said: “I’m feeling fit, I’m feeling in form, I’m feeling good. I don’t know if that is the best football I’ve ever played. Maybe not, to be honest. But in terms of scoring and numbers, I guess I’m better in recent years. But personally it is not something I identify myself with to be honest. Of course, if I get in the right position to score I’m going to try my best but I don’t define myself by the numbers I look at performances and also remember in recent years I was in really really good form so I can’t say it is the best football I’ve ever played.”
Gundogan will be looking to continue his, and City’s, good form in the Champions League final on Saturday against Inter Milan. While he accepts the European Cup is the biggest title on offer this season, he has told his teammates to focus on the simple things and prepare for the game as they have done every other this season.
Ilkay Gundogan said: “We will have a couple of days off, we will be able to recover and then start our training again. It is about doing the same things that we’ve been doing for the last two weeks. We don’t have to do anything special. I think the simplicity of doing our things makes us special. It is about putting effort into the training sessions, prepare ourselves as well as possible and go to Istanbul and try to win the game. We were chasing Arsenal for a long time in the Premier League so we were mainly focused on trying to win our next game every single time. We have been doing amazingly. The same goes for the FA Cup and Champions League. So there was not much time to think as we had games every three or four days and we just wanted to win the next one. What we have done in the last few months is amazing and obviously we already have two titles but we know we want this one even more than all the other ones before and that is our target for next week.”
