Due to a combination of sickness and an injury, Haaland was forced to miss the trip to Leicester City to play against Manchester City. In midweek’s Champions League match against his former team Borussia Dortmund, he was replaced before the break.
The 22-year-amazing old’s 17 goals in 11 Premier League games were certain to be missed, and his absence appeared to be a significant impact as Leicester built a blue wall of defensive defiance right from the start before inviting Manchester City to break it down. Step forward Kevin de Bruyne; in situations like this, big players can make a significant difference.
The match-winning goal in this stalemate was scored by the man who is still perhaps the most important to Manchester City’s overall strategy. Pep Guardiola’s defending Premier League champions won 1-0 to reclaim first place.
Four minutes after halftime, Nampalys Mendy tackled Jack Grealish, and the unrivalled Belgian stepped up to curve a stunning 25-yard free-kick with his right foot that was tantalizingly beyond Danny Ward’s reach before glinting off the goal frame and into the back of the net.
The important element was De Bruyne, as he has been so frequently. Not a Haaland? When you have guys of that calibre, there is no issue.
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Guardiola, who has such high standards, said: “He hadn’t been performing well the previous games, but today he was outstanding. Aware of it, he Today, there was no room. We were forced to wait.”
While Haaland has rightfully garnered the most attention for his exploits, De Bruyne is one of the key players in this Manchester City team. De Bruyne was probing, trying for that deadly pass inside and behind a well-drilled Foxes defence in the first half, even as they were being pressed and tormented by a well-organized Leicester.
De Bruyne made the final decision with the kind of personal brilliance that has become his trademark to remind everyone—if such a reminder were even necessary given that Manchester City has won four of the previous five Premier League championships—that the team’s talent goes far beyond the Norwegian.
