Coming hard on the heels of last week’s Champions League exit to Monaco, City found themselves chasing a pulsating game at the Etihad when former Blue James Milner converted a 51st minute penalty for the visitors.
Rather than crumble however, City dug deep and De Bruyne produced a stunning pass to set up Sergio Aguero’s equaliser 21 minutes from time and the Belgian almost won it for Pep Guardiola’s side when he struck the post.
“Its always hard for any team that goes out of the competition and I think the reaction was very good,” said De Bruyne.
“You have to pick up very quickly in football. We knew after Monaco that we had a big game in three days against Liverpool so we had to do our duty .
“And I think in the end we did that.
“For 80 minutes we played good and I think we dominated the game.
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“After going 1-0 down, there were 10 minutes of difficulty when Liverpool had high confidence.
“But I think in the end we played a good game. We just didn’t score the second goal but the way we played and reacted was very good.”
City and Liverpool slugged it out toe to toe as they served up one of the most exciting Premier League games of the season.
And De Bruyne said he had derived more satisfaction from turning provider for Aguero as City pegged back the visitors.
“Sometimes giving an assist gives me more pleasure than scoring a goal... that’s the way I am. Its just a shame we didn’t get that second goal,” De Bruyne added.
“We are two very intensive teams with pressing so sometimes it will be very open and in the end I think it was a good game to watch.”
