Man City 3-0 Nottm Forest (December 4, 2024) Game Analysis

Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne scored one goal and set up another in his first start in more than two months as City beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 on Wednesday to end their four-match losing streak in the Premier League.

Bernardo Silva and Jeremy Doku also scored to end City’s woeful seven-match winless run in all competitions, moving Pep Guardiola’s men provisionally fourth in the table, while Forest dropped to seventh.

De Bruyne had not started since suffering an abdominal injury on September 18 and the Belgian maestro’s presence was immediately felt at the Etihad Stadium as he helped City get on the scoresheet in the eighth minute when he headed towards goal and Silva curled the ball in from outside poked inside. close range.

“We needed it, the club, the players, everyone had to win,” Guardiola said. “The most important thing, of course, was to break this routine of not winning games, and in the end we won.”

De Bruyne himself scored in the 31st minute when he picked up a pass from Doku and fired at the ball from just inside the 18-yard box. Doku almost put the game away in the 57th minute when he met a pinpoint long ball from Erling Haaland, cut inside his man and smashed it into the far corner.

Belgian star De Bruyne, who had the City fans chanting his name all night, had come on as a substitute in the team’s five previous games, including a 2-0 defeat to league leaders Liverpool on Sunday to leave champions City finished in fifth place.

There were questions about a reported rift between the oft-injured De Bruyne and Guardiola, but the 33-year-old was given the captain’s armband on Wednesday and he led the team in style.

“He played very well,” Guardiola said of his captain. “Defensively he has helped us a lot. Very well. I am very satisfied. He is an incredible person. What he has done with us these years has been excellent. Maybe he cannot play every three days, but hopefully he can help us.” “

Forest squandered a few chances, the most glaring when Chris Wood was one on one with goalkeeper Stefan Ortega but blasted his shot wide. Wood had to take advantage of that chance to equalize when De Bruyne scored less than a minute later.

Guardiola selected Ortega as his goalkeeper over Ederson for the second successive match, and the German made a spectacular save early in the match from a thrilling shot from Morgan Gibbs-White.