Kevin de Bruyne was the toast of the Etihad on Friday night as the long-serving Manchester City star scored the only goal of the game to earn his side a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers and send his team up to third in the table.
Wolves came into the game as the in-form club in the Premier League, having won six on the spin to pull into mid-table safety, and the visitors created a number of good opportunities in the first half, hitting the post through Rayan Aït-Nouri and bungling a massive opportunity as a heavy final pass denied Marshall Munetsi an open goal.
But City looked dangerous going forward too, and it was a classic City goal that earned them the lead in the first half. Winning the ball in midfield, the hosts hit fast at a stretched Wolves defence, working the ball out to Doku on the left. And the winger did his job to perfection, getting on the outside of his man in the box and cutting the ball back into a dangerous area, picking out the waiting De Bruyne, who had ghosted forward after playing a part in the build-up.
There could not have been a more popular goalscorer inside the Etihad, with De Bruyne playing for what is likely to be the penultimate time at the ground before leaving the club in the summer.
And, with Wolves’ Matheus Cunha denied by the woodwork again in the second half, it was the Belgian’s goal that earned City all three points to send them up to third in the table and with an all-important four-point buffer ahead of sixth-placed Nottingham Forest in the race for Champions League qualification.
Eurosport