Belgian Kevin De Bruyne scored four goals from top five at Manchester City to lead him to a 5-1 win over host Wolves, restoring a three-point difference between him and his hometown Liverpool in a match rescheduled from the 33rd stage of the English Football League.
De Bruyne hit a “super hat trick” in the 7th, 16th, 24th and 60th minutes to take his tally to 19 goals in various competitions this season. His colleague Raheem Sterling (84) finished the scoring festival.
The only goal of the Wolves was scored by the Belgian Leander Dendoncker (11).
– ‘Above perfection’ – City manager Josep Guardiola praised De Bruyne’s ‘hat-trick’ performance in 24 minutes, ‘in the second league match it was beyond perfection’.
He continued: “He is very generous and he always makes sense to give away the decisive ball, but now he is more resilient. He has a sense of scoring goals” and “He scored goals resolutely and that’s what makes him the Best. It is important to score four goals in the decisive part of the championship now.” Extremely”.
City, who this week announced they have strengthened their ranks with Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland, extended their lead to 89 points, three points ahead of second-team Liverpool, who beat Aston Villa 2-1 on Tuesday, while while Chelsea tightened their grip. third with 70 points after his victory over Leeds United by three goals.
De Bruyne began his celebration with a deep pass into the box from Portugal’s Bernardo Silva, followed by the Belgian right through a left footed kick (7) and 4 minutes later Leeds scored the equalizer after losing the ball put in by Mexican Raul Jiménez in the center and passing on the left flank to the Portuguese Pedro Neto, who gave the sneaking ball inside the penalty area, followed by Dendonker in the net (11).
De Bruyne was substituted 5 minutes after the game with Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko which reached Sterling so the ball went back to the Belgian he followed him straight into the net to come back and add a third after Sterling conceded the ball and then a left foot kick into the right corner Portuguese goalkeeper José Sa (24).
The Belgian wasn’t satisfied with a triple but added a “super hat trick” from a cross by Phil Foden (60) to bring the latter back and hit the post 7 minutes before Sterling added a fifth (84) to his team. , thus depriving the post of his fifth personal goal and the sixth for his team (89).
Chelsea tighten their grip – Chelsea have taken another step towards defining their Champions League qualification next season and best preparing for the Cup final by beating their imperfect hosts Leeds United 3-0 in postponed match. also from the 33rd stage.
Chelsea raised their tally to 70 points in third place, 4 points ahead of fourth-placed Arsenal and 8 points ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham.
The Blues are in the best position to prepare for Saturday’s cup final against Liverpool, returning to a winning streak after three league matches in which they didn’t taste victory (two draws against defeat), resuming their victory. over Leeds after winning the first leg 3–2 at home.
Chelsea are considered the third best team outside their stronghold this season behind Liverpool and Manchester City as they have only lost 3 times compared to 12 wins and 4 draws in 19 games.
On the other hand, relegation-threatened Leeds suffered their third consecutive defeat after losing 4-2 to Manchester City and 1-2 to Arsenal, freezing their tally in eighteenth place with 34 points, level with Burnley. who has less game.
Leeds also failed to beat Chelsea in Game 8, having failed to score three points at home in just four of 18 league matches this season.
In a one-sided first half, Chelsea opened the scoring 4 minutes after the referee whistled over Mason Mount following a joint game with Belgian strikers Romelu Lukaku and Rhys James, scoring his 11th goal of the season.
Leeds have suffered a second painful blow after their Welsh striker Daniel James was sent off with a straight red card following a foul on Croatian Mateo Kovacic (24) to start the Lukaku Festival in which the referee overruled his goal from a ball after returning to video assistant The VAR referee confirmed the offside case (31), returned the Belgian giant and headed towards goal three minutes later, while Leeds goalkeeper Ilan Millier played a major role in stopping Mount’s shot (42).
Chelsea added a second after a cross from Mount on the outskirts of the penalty area, followed by an uncensored American, Christian Pulisic, who shot into the net (55).
Lukaku re-evaluated his skills and quickly entered the box and hit the floor that went along the post (65) before he managed to score from a pass into the box from substitute Moroccan Hakim Ziyech (82).
The competition at this stage will end on Thursday when Everton play Crystal Palace.
Leicester City beat Norwich City 3-0 in the rescheduled match from stage 21, while Watford drew Everton in the rescheduled match from stage 30.
