Kevin De Bruyne makes retirement admission after stunning Man City U-turn

Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne played down retirement talk after inspiring a sensational turnaround against Crystal Palace on Saturday. The Belgian will leave the Etihad Stadium this summer after a decade as a City player, but fully intends to prolong his career elsewhere.

Pep Guardiola's City trailed 2-0 at home to Palace, and Ebere Eze was denied a third inside the opening half hour after straying marginally offside. But miraculousy, City produced a remarkable in-game U-turn, with De Bruyne bringing his team back into the game with a pinpoint free-kick and Omar Marmoush equalising before three second-half goals saw Guardiola's men clinch a fine 5-2 victory.

The win kept City in the hunt for Champions League football, and De Bruyne remained determined to deliver qualification as a parting gift. "I want to go away with a Champions League for this team because they deserve it," he told Match of the Day. "We've been in the Champions League for the nine, ten years that I've been here so I hope we can do that for the team next year and I'll just try to play good football like I've always done. After this Man City chapter I want to play on, so we'll see where I can end up.”

He suggested the timing of his goal against Palace was key, saying: "I think it was important to score as quickly as possible and change the feeling of the game a bit. I didn't think we were playing that bad but the scoreline wasn't good at all. We went from there."

Mateo Kovacic put City in front early in the second half, with youngsters James McAtee and Nico O'Reilly rounding off the scoring. McAtee's goal came on his first Premier League start for City, and he suggested the early deficit wasn't representative of the game.

"I don’t think we deserved to be 2-0 down, I missed a few chances early on," he told TNT Sports. "We were playing well anyway and we knew the goals were going to come. We showed good character to come back."

Manager Guardiola also believed City were playing well even in the early stages when they were caught out by goals from Eze and Chris Richards. He hailed the impact of De Bruyne, one of the stars of his previous title-winning sides, in helping the hosts turn things around.

"Our momentum was sparked with a free-kick from Kevin and after that we played a really good game considering we were 2-0 down and considering how Crystal Palace have been in the past games," Guardiola said "[This was] he Kevin we have known for many years.

"I know he's struggled the last year and a half. He's free without pain and completely different. The way we played helped him a lot with incredible runners, the young lads, the full-backs."

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