Although City had struggled to for finesse against a strong Sevilla side, De Bruyne believes the Blues’ refusal to settle for a point was what made the difference, and he’ll be looking for more of the same in the return game in a fortnight’s time.
De Bruyne reflected: “Even though we didn’t have our best game, in the end we tried everything to look for the victory and thankfully in the end we could score.
“To get a draw [in Spain] isn’t that bad but I think we have a team to attack. Sevilla are very good in possession but we will try to get the three points there too.”
City were forced to be patient to get the winner which, coupled with Juventus drawing in the other game, blows the group wide open.
Speaking after the final whistle, Joe Hart was full of praise for City’s opponents, who forced Manuel Pellegrini’s men to work extremely hard for the points.
Said Joe: “Sevilla deserve to be in this competition, they’ve won a lot of trophies over the past few years and they made it difficult for us.
“I think they would have been happier with a draw than we would but we know we had good chances and Kevin with a fantastic finish won us the game.”
It was the visitors who broke the deadlock in the first half – Konoplyanka finding space in the box to put the ball past Hart.
However, City’s no.1 refused to dwell on the defence and expects improvement throughout the squad as they tackle a challenging autumn and winter fixture list.
He added: “We are working hard as a team. We appreciate we are quite an attacking team so we can leave ourselves a little short at the back sometimes and it’s something we want to improve, but we want to improve all over the pitch to be the team we want to be.”
