Football fans have singled out Man City's Kevin de Bruyne for praise after inspiring his side to fight back and secure a draw in Sunday afternoon's Premier League clash with Newcastle. The Belgian playmaker set-up Bernardo Silva for the Citizens' equaliser in the 3-3 draw at St James' Park to claim plaudits across social media in the aftermath of the encounter.
It took Man City just five minutes to make a mark in their third game of the season thanks to Illkay Gundogan's strike. However, the tide took a rather drastic turn with Newcastle dominating proceeding from that point onward. The Magpies eventually had their reward through Miguel Almiron after the Paraguayan redirected Allan Saint-Maximin's cross into the net with his thigh. The goal was initially ruled out but a VAR review revealed that the player was onside and did not also handle the ball as initially speculated.
With the score level, Allan Saint-Maxim continued to terrorize Pep Guardiola's side and was able to set-up Callum Wilson for Newcastle's second goal of the afternoon in the 39th minute. In the early minutes of the second half the hosts took a deserved two-goal lead, with Kieran Trippier firing a direct freekick from 20 yards past Ederson.
On the hour mark, Erling Haaland gave City a goal to reduce the deficit to one again. Four minutes later, the moment for De Bruyne's magnificent pass arrived. Bernardo Silva's run was seemingly anticipated by the Belgian midfielder, who sent a lovely through pass through the legs of Joe Willock to his teammate to finish off coolly.
Watch:
That pass from De Bruyne.
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) August 21, 2022
Manchester City score two goals in 3:30 to tie the match at 3-3!
: @USA_Network & @TelemundoSports #MyPLMorning | #NEWMCI pic.twitter.com/F6a8irbF6r
With no goal being produced after Bernardo Silva's strike, Manchester City became only the fourth side ever to avoid defeat in three straight Premier League matches after falling two or more goals behind. Manchester United, (October 1997), Liverpool (December 2008) and West Ham (April 2016) are the onl three sides who had previously managed the feat.
Below are a few reactions to De Bruyne's pass:
@KevinDeBruyne to see the pass is one thing , but then to deliver the pass. Unbelievable
— John Terry (@JohnTerry26) August 21, 2022
World class assist from De Bruyne. Wow.
— Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo (@Fentuo_) August 21, 2022
The quality will always shine through. Brilliant stuff.
Kevin De Bruyne could've easily walked away with 4 or 5 assists tonight. Absolute masterclass in playmaking.
— sm (@TacticoModerno) August 21, 2022
That's astonishing from De Bruyne. Still the best player in the league.
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) August 21, 2022
De Bruyne just makes everything look good, the assists and quality on a regular is a joke
— Yannick Bolasie (@YannickBolasie) August 21, 2022
The vision from De Bruyne there. Look at where Silva was when he played it pic.twitter.com/NdedLkQukT
— Mark Douglas (@MsiDouglas) August 21, 2022Just rewatched De Bruyne's assist and seen he's megged someone too pic.twitter.com/HpCpJQivc3
— No Context Ederson (@0ContextEderson) August 21, 2022When your biggest competition has a player with the quality Kevin De Bruyne has, there's not much you can do.
— Laurie (@LFCLaurie) August 21, 2022