Inspirational De Bruyne scores four past Wolves

Kevin De Bruyne inspired Manchester City to a 5-1 victory at Molineux – scoring four of his team’s goals in the process.

Action: Wolves were without Bruno Lage and other members of the coaching due to COVID, although it’s unlikely that would have helped stop the imperious Kevin de Bruyne.

The Belgian opened the scoring for the visitors after a simple-looking one-two with Bernardo Silva cut the Wolves' defence apart and the Belgian finished well past José Sá.

But City’s lead didn’t last long. Wolves looked a threat from the break and they equalised in the 11th minute when Leander Dendoncker finished a counter-attacking move that didn’t cover the City defence in glory. 

Pep Guardiola’s team hit back just five minutes later, again through De Bruyne. The midfielder did well to find space and lift a floated ball into Raheem Stirling. Sá was quick to react to it but the goalkeeper’s block put the ball into the path of De Bruyne to score his second.

There was nothing Sá could do about the third goal either. This was a thing of beauty as De Bruyne let off a curling strike into the far corner of the net with just 24 minutes to seal his hat-trick. 

Wolves hadn’t played that badly but there was nothing they could do about a player in inspired form.

De Bruyne completed the ‘poker’ on the hour mark. Silva and the star man were involved in the build-up with Phil Foden eventually playing a pass that De Bruyne finished cooly to make it 4-1. 

It could have been much more than 4-1 in truth. Foden and Sterling in particular missing chances. 

Raheem Stirling did eventually get the goal that he had been searching for – City’s fifth of the night. A quick counterattack gave the England international an empty goal to tap the ball into with no mistakes. 

Big Picture: While the performance of De Bruyne was truly sensational, the three points were more important than anything.

With just two games to go, City lead by three points over Liverpool with a goal difference of +7 over their nearest rivals. A victory in one of their final two games, away to West Ham and then home to Aston Villa, is likely to be enough for the title. 

Man of the Match: Kevin De Bruyne. Who needs Haaland?

xG: Wolverhampton Wanderers (0.52) 1-5 (3.25) Manchester City

Stat of the Day: This was the third-quickest hat-trick in Premier League history from the kick-off after Sadio Mané v Aston Villa (2015, 16 minutes) and Dwight Yorke v Arsenal (2001, 22 minutes).

Kevin De Bruyne has scored twice as many goals in an hour than Mo Salah in his last 14 games #ManCity #MCFC

— Mike Minay (@MikeMinay) May 11, 2022