'Extraordinary' De Bruyne leads Man City to Champions League victory over Copenhagen

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola hailed "extraordinary" Kevin de Bruyne after the midfielder starred in the 3-1 win at Copenhagen on Tuesday night to keep the Champions League holders on track for a successful title defence.

The Belgian midfielder was involved in all three City goals at Parken Stadium, scoring the opener in the 10th minute before Copenhagen equalised against the run of play through Magnus Mattsson.

Bernardo Silva restored City's lead before half time after De Bruyne overran the ball and lunged to make a tackle, inadvertently sending the ball flying into the path of the midfielder in the area. As the goalkeeper came out, Silva deftly flicked the ball with his left foot up and into the far corner.

City then had to wait until stoppage time to add further punishment for the hosts when Phil Foden turned home De Bruyne's cut-back.

De Bruyne was sidelined for five months by a hamstring tear suffered on the opening night of the Premier League season in August. But since his return last month, the 32-year-old has scored two goals and provided seven assists in seven appearances.

"Extraordinary," said Guardiola of De Bruyne's statistics. "The biggest players love to appear on the biggest stages. It's the hour of truth when you are in the last 16 of the Champions League and we start well."

The English champions have now won 11 consecutive games in all competitions as they remain on course to repeat last season's treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup.

Copenhagen had not played a competitive game for two months since sealing their place in the last 16 by dumping out Manchester United and Galatasaray out in the group stages.

"They had a great group stage so we had to respect them," said De Bruyne.