Kevin De Bruyne was the oustandingly talented pr*ck in a League Cup treat we actively didn’t want, but lapped up like the hungry football addicts we are.
What does no-one need on a hangover after a binge at a five-star Indian restaurant? Korma from a can. Four days after the greatest final ever of the biggest football tournament in the world, here were two teams facing off in a domestic competition few pretend to care about at the best of times. Manchester City v Liverpool in the Carabao Cup was the Tesco value curry on the dry heaves to the perfectly proportioned lamb rogan josh of the World Cup final. We absolutely didn’t need it; in fact we actively didn’t want it.
But sometimes, forcing some beige down your throat early doors can sort that hangover right out. And having questioned why this game was even happening at kick-off, thoughts quickly turned to how lucky we all are to be able to watch such brilliant football all the bloody time. Bring on the 32-team Club World Cup. Forget a World Cup every three years, let’s make it annual. Bring back the Intertoto.
The World Cup final confirmed Lionel Messi’s GOAT status ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo for all but the deluded beyond help, but was also seen by many as a passing-of-the-torch moment from him to Kylian Mbappe, as Erling Haaland bristled from his cryogenic chamber at home.
Suggestions that the only man seemingly able to challenge Mbappe as the current world’s best may be ring rusty after a five-week break gained credence as he ran through on goal after 20 seconds and ballooned the ball high and wide with Caoimhin Kelleher in no man’s land. But those thoughts were dismissed nine minutes later as he got in front of Joe Gomez – who hasn’t rediscovered how to defend during the break – to poke the first of many superb Kevin De Bruyne crosses into the corner.
De Bruyne was finding all sorts of space, and Belgian fans must have been rubbing their cheeks at the consistent slaps in the face the playmaker was doling out at the Etihad. It’s unfortunate for De Bruyne that the better he now plays for Manchester City, the less we think of him as a person after he threw his international teammates under a bus he then refused to conductat the World Cup. He picked out Ilkay Gundogan for one shot blocked by Kelleher, produced one of the great crosses for Nathan Ake to fluff and another one less brilliant, but brilliant nonetheless, for the same man to score the eventual winner. De Bruyne…
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