Kevin De Bruyne insists last year’s comeback defeat to Real Madrid will have no bearing on this season’s Champions League semi-final bout.
A last-gasp double from Rodrygo before Karim Benzema’s penalty in extra time saw Los Blancos stage an astonishing turnaround to sink the Blues, who also lost the 2021 final to Chelsea.
City meet Madrid in the last four for a second consecutive campaign as both try to reach Istanbul. City’s absence of lethal finishing in the second match last term prompted many to call for a clinical summer acquisition, which came in Erling Haaland.
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The striker scored in each leg of the club’s 4-1 quarter-final aggregate win over Bayern Munich, with the 22-year-old now on 48 goals for the season despite missing a penalty at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday. City will feel more confident of beating holders Madrid with the Norwegian in the side this time around.
Naturally, questions have been asked about City’s mentality ahead of the clash given the drama that unfolded at the Bernabeu last year. De Bruyne says he has moved on from that disappointment and says his team will be ready to the rematch.
“What happened last year, happened. I think we played really well in the two games and in the last five minutes [they] changed the course of not qualifying,” De Bruyne said. “You have to take it on the chin and move on.
“It happened and it doesn’t mean we didn’t play well for the majority of the two games but football is about details and it happens and you move on.
“If you play Champions League the quality is class, but we need to prepare ourselves to be ready for that, but we still have a couple of games in between.”
City travel to Spain on May 9 for the first leg before welcoming Madrid to the Etihad eight days later, where they beat the Spaniards 4-3 in last season’s first leg.
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