Wednesday’s excellent 1-1 quarter final second leg draw away at Bayern Munich sealed our passage through 4-1 on aggregate – and set up another mouth-watering last four showdown with the Spanish giants.
Bringing together the La Liga and Premier League champions, they promise to be two epic and compelling ties – and will serve up a repeat of last season’s eventful semi-final between the pair, which ended in a 6-5 aggregate triumph for Carlo Ancelotti’s side.
Looking ahead to next month’s matches De Bruyne, who produced another commanding man of the match display at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday, said he was expecting nothing less than two ties of the very highest quality.
But the Belgian midfielder believes that if we heed the lessons of last season’s games, we can ensure a different outcome this time around.
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“We’ll need to be at our best to beat them,” De Bruyne asserted.
“Last year, we played really well, made some mistakes but this year we will try to minimise the mistakes.
“One of the best teams. A lot of respect for them – top, top team and players.
“We’ve played a lot of times against them, and they’ve always been good games. I wouldn’t expect anything less.
“I’ve got confidence in our team. We go again and hopefully the outcome will be ours this time.”
Wednesday’s display away to the Bundesliga champions demonstrated both our class and composure allied to supreme game management.
Bayern threw everything at City, especially in a tense opening 45 minutes.
But once Erling Haaland struck with the 48th goal of his own remarkable season, the job was effectively done, with a late Joshua Kimmich penalty proving little more than consolation for the hosts.
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Reflecting on the two ties, De Bruyne said that he was proud of the way City went about our collective task.
“We know Bayern are top. In both games, we knew there were moments where we were going to suffer,” the Belgian added.
“I’ve played here a couple of times before and the atmosphere is impressive.
“As a team, we defended really well.
“At the right moments, we had our chances and we deserved to qualify.
“I’m very proud of this team, we did very well against a top-class team and we’re happy to go back to the semis.”
With the season now in its defining final two months and City still in the hunt for silverware on three fronts, De Bruyne is once again proving a key figure for Pep Guardiola’s side.
And with the games coming thick and fast – Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United is next on the horizon ahead of a pivotal midweek Premier League clash with leaders Arsenal - De Bruyne said he was relishing the hectic run-in.
“I feel really good,” De Bruyne added.
“I’m very happy that in the last two years I’ve had no injuries whatsoever.
“I’m flowing with the team, and try to create as many chances as possible.
“I’m very happy with the form of the team and we need to keep going – it’s a tough end to the season but it’s fun.”
