Kevin De Bruyne played his final home game as Manchester City eased to a 3-1 win over Bournemouth to close in on a top-five finish.
Pep Guardiola said pre-match that distractions would only be harmful to his side’s chances of securing Champions League football – neither De Bruyne’s Etihad farewell nor Rodri’s first appearance in a matchday squad since September should disturb the task at hand.
FA Cup final disappointment – just three short days ago – was swiftly displaced by the top-five mission, as Omar Marmoush rifled a spectacular opener in the 14th minute and Bernardo Silva added a well-taken second – but not before a glaring De Bruyne miss, which he later dubbed “terrible”.
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Omar Marmoush scores remarkable strike to fire Man City ahead against Bournemouth.
With a glittering career in sky blue drawing to an imminent close, the Belgian dominated most of the preamble, and drew audible gasps when hammering Marmoush’s pullback surprisingly onto the crossbar from close range.
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Kevin de Bruyne misses massive chance with an open goal firing his effort off the bar against Bournemouth.
Bournemouth barely participated in the first half but came into the game briefly after the break, Antoine Semenyo and Milos Kerkez the most threatening of the bunch – doing their chances of a big summer move, with links to Man Utd and Liverpool respectively, no harm at all.
The visitors, fairly flat all evening, were then buoyed by the sending off of Mateo Kovacic midway through the second period for hauling back Evanilson, only for Lewis Cook to see red for a reckless challenge on Nico Gonzalez six minutes later. Gonzalez dealt due punishment by thundering a third one minute before the end.
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Bernardo Silva slots home City second against Bournemouth!
Guardiola’s side, who also welcomed back Rodri from an eight-month injury absence, capped a close-to-perfect night by moving third – despite having their clean sheet snatched away by Daniel Jebbison in stoppage time – two points ahead of rivals Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa with one game to go, while the Cherries’ bid for eighth is over.
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Rodri came on to the delight of the Manchester City fans after eight months out through injury.
De Bruyne: An unbelievable ride
Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne after playing his final game at the Etihad:
“It’s a bit weird. It’s been unbelievable to have the 10 years that I’ve had over here. It’s been an unbelievable ride, an absolute pleasure.
“I wanted to bring joy to people, play offensive football, creative, that is why I am on the pitch and I want to have fun. I think we had a lot of fun over the 10 years. You win, you lose sometimes.
“It was a joy working really hard and creating something which brought the club much better than it was before. I’m super proud.”
Story of the match in stats…
What’s coming up in the Premier League?
Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season
From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.
And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.
