Kevin De Bruyne celebrated his 29th birthday on Sunday by scoring in Manchester City’s 2-0 victory over Newcastle United at St. James’ Park.The world-class Belgian midfielder broke the deadlock from the penalty spot in the 37th minute. Raheem Sterling then added a second goal midway through the second half.This win sent Man City through to the FA Cup semi-finals, where they will face Arsenal at Wembley next month."We are in the semi-finals. It was not easy to attack against a team defending so deep but it was a good performance,” City boss Pep Guardiola was quoted saying by BBC Sport after the final whistle. “I am happy to go back to London, to Wembley."After the defeat against Chelsea, now in the Premier League we are struggling to focus. We are close in the Champions League and there is a gap. We are at Wembley again and were winners last season so that is so good. We are of course preparing for Real Madrid now."Newcastle manager Steve Bruce, meanwhile, praised City for their performance."Manchester City are an outstanding team, you saw that when we tried to press them in second half,” he said. “You saw that for the second goal. We made it a bit of a cup tie but for long periods it didn't feel like that. I was a lot more pleased with us in the second half."You cannot make the type of mistake we did for the penalty. We have given a poor penalty away. We had to be more aggressive towards them."
There was a funny moment after the match involving Bruce and De Bruyne.De Bruyne was being interviewed when, from out of nowhere, Bruce appeared and 'announced' the Premier League star was leaving City for Newcastle.
“He’s going to stay here,” Bruce revealed. “That’s an exclusive out of Newcastle tonight. He’s had enough of Manchester City and he’s going to come and play for Newcastle.”Watch the clip here…
De Bruyne, looking a tad embarrassed, chuckled away.
He saw the funny side.
But unfortunately for Newcastle fans, we think the prospect of De Bruyne lining up alongside Joelinton and co. next season is, well, rather slim.