De Bruyne quartet brings City closer to retaining Premier League title

The genius Manchester City midfielder, Kevin De Bruyne, scored a quad, in a 5-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers, to bring his team closer to retaining the English Premier League title with two games remaining. The Belgian star put his team in a comfortable position after scoring three goals in an astonishing 18 minutes in the first half, then added the fourth after the break, amid cheers from the fans in his name alongside the chants of “Champions of England”. With this result, Pep Guardiola’s team is leading with 89 points, three points ahead of his chaser Liverpool, and City is ahead of the goal difference to be close to the title. The second successive league title will relieve the frustration of the Champions League semi-final exit, while Liverpool qualified for the final.

At Wolverhampton, De Bruyne scored the third fastest hat-trick in the history of the Premier League, and his first in a City shirt. The party began at the seventh minute; In the first goal, he started a move before turning Bernardo Silva’s pass into the net with a perfect touch, then followed up a rebound from the goalkeeper in the 16th minute, and hit a wonderful ball with his weaker left foot on the edge of the penalty area in the 24th minute. De Bruyne said: “The third goal is my favourite, Of the four goals, he was the purest. He added, “It is special to score a four, and it could have been five in all honesty,” expressing his regret over a late shot that hit the post. It is not surprising that Wolverhampton exploded surprises in front of the Premier League, and already threatened to do so when they drew 1 – 1 with a goal by Leander Dundoncker after a wonderful counter-attack before De Bruyne continued his impressive display. He scored the fourth goal with a close-range shot in the 60th minute, before Raheem Sterling completed the easy win for City in the 84th minute.

Guardiola praised the midfielder for creating and scoring many goals in recent years, saying: “Unstoppable, amazing, exceptional, perfect. He has the ability to do exceptional things. He is a great player and creates chances, but he has to score goals, and this season is his best in terms of number of goals since he joined.” City will play West Ham away from home, then host Aston Villa in the last two matches, and will guarantee the title with one victory and a draw. Liverpool will play the FA Cup final against Chelsea, on Sunday, before facing Southampton away from its stadium, and then receive Wolverhampton in the last two league matches. Wolverhampton remains in eighth place, and has 50 points. “With players like De Bruyne who can always change games, you can come up with a plan, but a player like him comes in and scores a four and decides the game,” Wolverhampton coach Carlos Cachada said. In front of this performance, you can do nothing.”

De Bruyne celebrated in the manner of his new Norwegian teammate, Erling Haaland, after scoring the third goal. “I did it because I scored three goals, I’ve never done that before,” De Bruyne said. But the message was clear; City hopes that Haaland, who will join on July 1 from Borussia Dortmund, will be the solution not only to strengthen the team’s position in the domestic league, but also to win the Champions League. “It’s a good deal for the future,” Guardiola said of Haaland after the win over Wolverhampton. Came to survive for many years. I am sure he will cope perfectly. He has an amazing talent at this age. I am sure we will help him adapt in the best possible way.” Haaland, 21, has scored 85 goals in 88 games with Dortmund since joining the German team in January 2020, and topped the list of top scorers in the Champions League last season, as well as the European Nations League. But before the Norwegian striker joined, Guardiola’s team still had to win the league title. He has a three-point advantage over Liverpool with two rounds remaining. Under De Bruyne, it will be difficult for City to fall in the last two rounds. Despite his four goals, De Bruyne spoke of the pain of City’s loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals last week. “It’s hard to explain what happened,” he said. Five minutes were crazy. I don’t know what happened… It was a shock. We have to move on, we have to win the (English Premier League) and move on.”

Leeds United came closer to relegation from the English Premier League after conceding goals from Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Romelu Lukaku during Chelsea’s easy 3-0 win against ten of the host team’s players. Chelsea is preparing in the best possible way for the cup final against Liverpool, tomorrow (Saturday), by returning to the winning streak after three league games during which it did not taste the taste of victory (two draws against a defeat), renewing its victory over Leeds after winning the first leg at home 3-2.

The result was important to both teams; Chelsea needed five additional points to secure a golden-square finish before visiting the north, while Leeds struggled to survive relegation. But Leeds did not expect a worse start when Mount opened the scoring for visitors within four minutes, before a reckless intervention by Dan James sent him off after 20 minutes complicating the task of the hosts.

It seemed that the match turned to one direction after this situation, and Chelsea confirmed its victory by adding the second goal through the American Pulisic with a shot on the edge of the penalty area in the 54th minute, then Lukaku completed the hat-trick with a late goal. The third defeat in a row means that Leeds remain in the relegation centers with 34 points from 36 matches, with Burnley, who are 17th. They have one match left, so that Sunday’s match against Brighton becomes pivotal for coach Jesse Marsh’s team. With this first victory in four matches, coach Thomas Tuchel’s team occupies third place with 70 points, four points ahead of fourth-placed Arsenal, and eight points above Tottenham Hotspur, fifth in the table. In two other matches, Leicester City defeated Norwich City 3-0 in a postponed match from the 21st stage. While Watford tied with Everton in a postponed match from the thirtieth stage.