Kevin De Bruyne limped in the first half with a hamstring problem. Photo: Getty Images/Michael Regan
Erling Haaland, the man he's caused so much destruction this season, was the first to sympathize with him. A hand on his shoulder, a pat on his chest, a couple of quiet words in his ear. Moments later, Ilkay Gündoğan, the captain of Manchester City, came over to console his midfield partner. Then Nathan Ake, the same.
They didn't need Kevin De Bruyne to say anything. They just knew. The pained look on his face as he took that long, lonely step was enough to make him say more than words could ever say: the pain, the disappointment, the grief, the knowledge that another Champions League final was brutal. interrupted before he was killed. able to leave an imprint in the game.
By the time De Bruyne finally sat on the bench and applied a huge ice pack to his hamstring, the Belgian midfielder looked like he wanted to be swallowed up by the ground. «Why always Me?» Borrow the line from Mario Balotelli, one of several former City players at Atatürk Stadium on Saturday night.
Two years ago at Porto, De Bruyne lasted just an hour in the final against Chelsea, yielding to the cynical Antonio Rüdiger, who stood his ground and let City's number 17 crash into his body with full force.
De Bruyne left the field with a concussion, broken eye socket and nose. Dazed and bewildered, the only salvation at the time was that he didn't seem to know too much about it. On the contrary, the physical pain and trauma may not have been as intense this time, but there was absolute clarity as to what was going on and, in many ways, this mental torture was probably as sharp as anything else.
It was only 35 minutes on the clock when De Bruyne raised his hand to signal his race was over, a crushing sight for any City representative and the moment Pep Guardiola realized that if that particular Champions League itch was going to be quenched, it would have to be done without him. talisman in midfield.
De Bruyne had just missed another cross, which is so out of character for one of the most accurate passers in the game, and he knew it was there.
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Five minutes back, he collapsed to the ground, clutching his leg, bowing his head and dejected. City fans felt a knot twist in their stomach.
De Bruyne had to watch his teammates beat Inter from a dugout. Photo: Getty Images/Alex Grimm
He tried to wrestle, but it didn't work. It wasn't an injury he was going to run from. When a pass meant for Jack Grealish rolled out for an Inter Milan goal kick, De Bruyne covered his face with his hands. He seemed to want to cry. And others probably wanted to cry for him.
The city may not be everyone's cup of tea. In fact, there are those who openly snub the club, given that lifted UEFA ban, those 115 allegations (charges the club vehemently denies) and all that money. But De Bruyne is a player hard to dislike, no matter how loyal you are. He plays football the way we all would like, throws passes that seem to defy physics, and does it all while carrying the ruddy complexion of a player in the park flying out of his ass 10 minutes later on Sunday morning after the night before . .
Therefore, to see him exhausted by injury, unable to run and roam as he loves so much in the biggest club scene of all, was a great shame. De Bruyne tried to play down the importance of winning the Champions League and insisted that one game would not define a career approaching 700 caps for club and country, unlike Guardiola, who refused to pretend that would not happen. determine how people feel about his side.
But he never really washed. Watching him turn inside out in that stunning semi-final victory over Real Madrid in the second leg at the Etihad Stadium, when for a moment in the second half he seemed to be even exhausted, it became clear that the competition meant so much to him. The best players succeed when the stakes are very high, and De Bruyne, despite the fact that he can play the role of a stubborn superstar, wanted to be that person as much as anyone else.
Guardiola replaced De Bruyne with Phil Foden. Photo: Getty Images/Francois Nel
For a player accustomed to bending the game to his will, watching this game go on without him, unable to influence it any longer, must have been agony, especially considering what happened two years ago in Portugal. Instead, he had to watch Phil Foden in his place and others trying to overcome Inter's stubborn resistance. Thus, the joy when Rodri crashed into the target was unbridled.
As much pain as his heavily bandaged right hamstring caused him, it seemed that at that moment he forgot the ball had hit the net and De Bruyne jumped off the bench, ran to the touchline before enjoying the warmest hugs with some of the substitutes. City players.
Nothing lifts your spirits like a goal in your favor, especially one as big as this one, and soon De Bruyne was back off the bench, yelling instructions in Guardiola's shadow, Cristiano Ronaldo-style at the Euro -2016.
Anything, anything to help his team cross the line and ensure that his personal anguish plays a secondary role in winning the Champions League, and with it the treble.
At the post-match presentation, while most of the City players were kissing the trophy as they passed through the guard of honor, de Bruyne pulled away from him and puffed out his cheeks, as if to say, «God, you made me go through the hoop, didn't you?» whether? ?'. Later, tears flowed as he hugged his children. All's well that ends well.
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