'I want to go away with a Champions League place' - Kevin De Bruyne

Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne has revealed the key motivation behind his inspirational performance against Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.

The City attacking midfielder’s magic free kick made sure the host came back from a 2-0 goal down against Crystal Palace to keep their hopes for Champions League football alive.

De Bruyne’s masterclass kept the hosts in the Champions League qualification battle after Ruben Dias’ absolute nightmare of a first half that saw the visitors racing ahead at the Etihad.

Pep Guardiola’s side showed their composure and recovery as they battled back from two goals down to claim what could be a vital 5-2 win in the Premier League early kick-off game on Saturday.

After an early switch off by City’s defense, Eberechi Eze tapped into an empty net with a brilliant break on the right which allowed Ismaila Sarr to square across the box for the first goal.

City almost equalized immediately through Omar Marmoush, but for quick decision by Palace captain Dean Henderson, making his body big enough for an important save.

Palace made it 2-0 after City’s defence went to sleep again and added to their tally of the current campaign’s set-piece goals – which now stands at a Premier League-high 14 – to make it 2-0 after 21 minutes.

Richards nodded home as Ederson made a mess of attempting to punch clear following Adam Wharton’s whipped-in corner from the right.

De Bruyne’s shoot outside the box hit the post as the Blues looked to fight back, this time with lots of confidence in their passing going forward.

Kevin De Bruyne drew City level with a superb 33rd-minute free-kick, wrong-footing Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson.

De Bruyne beat Henderson with a clever free-kick that bounced in off the post, and then Marmoush levelled things up at 36 minutes, following De Bruyne’s header back into the danger zone.

City would go ahead for the first in the game as more De Bruyne magic saw him lay a beautiful pass inside Palace’s penalty area up for Kovacic for 3-2.

Youngsters James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly then added two more goals to the team’s tally as they secured a thumping 5-2 win.

De Bruyne, who is all set to leave City at the end of the 2024-25 campaign, revealed after the match that he wants to see his club finish among the top five teams in the Premier League and secure a Champions League place for next season.

Speaking to reporters, the 33-year-old said: “I want to go away with a Champions League place for this team because they deserve it.

“We’ve been in the Champions League for the nine, ten years that I’ve been here, so I hope we can do that for the team next year and I’ll just try to play good football like I’ve always done.”

He added: “I think we started well, had a couple of chances and out of nowhere we’re 2-0 behind and it could have been three.

“The response was good. I thought overall we played pretty much a good game but we gave chances away and they pounced on it.

“The reaction was really good and in the end I think we deserved to win.

“I think it was important to score as quickly as possible and change the feeling of the game a bit.

“I didn’t think we were playing that bad but the scoreline wasn’t good at all. We went from there.”

Once again, the Belgium international show class, the performance of a leader and captain – not one who could be seen as a 33-year-old guard.

Cheers and applause from the fans showed how important a player they could be missing, having declared his departure from the champion at the end of the current campaign.

With the three points on Saturday, the champions have now leapfrogged Chelsea to move up to fourth in the league table with 55 points from 32 matches.