Pep Guardiola‘s defending European champions made the perfect start at Parken Stadium, with De Bruyne superbly arrowing the ball into the bottom left corner from the right side of the box.
We almost had a second goal a few minutes after the opener, but Bernardo Silva’s deflected cross cannoned off the crossbar and to safety for the hosts.
Shortly after the half-hour mark, the Danish side levelled through debutant Magnus Mattsson’s curling effort from 18 yards, which nestled into the top right corner.
With the clock ticking into first half stoppage time, Bernardo poked us back ahead expertly from six yards after the ball deflected off De Bruyne‘s foot into his path.
Deep into second half stoppage time, Phil Foden added our third of the evening, connecting with De Bruyne‘s sublime cutback to round off a superb victory.
CITY+ | SIGN UP TO ACCESS EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
De Bruyne now has nine goal involvements across all competitions since returning from injury in early January, scoring twice and assisting seven times.
We now take a 3-1 advantage into the second leg at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday 6 March.
View the best images from the victory at Parken Stadium via our gallery below.
