London
\nManchester City don\u2019t need to win the Champions League to be judged a success, claims Belgian star Kevin de Bruyne in an interview with the BBC.<\/p>\n
European club football\u2019s most prestigious trophy has proved elusive to City despite the hundreds of millions invested in players since Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club in 2008 with a semi-final appearance in the 2015\/16 season under Manuel Pellegrini their best showing.<\/p>\n
However, De Bruyne whose Champions League hopes were dashed by Premier League rivals Liverpool last season tells the BBC winning the league crown last season probably ranks as a greater achievement than if one were to win the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t agree that we have to win the Champions League to be a success,\u201d said De Bruyne, who has been with City since 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a big title to win but in the Champions League you don\u2019t need to have the consistency that you need in the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were great for the whole year, maybe a bit less against Liverpool, and so we were out.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Bruyne speaks with even more recent painful experience of disappointment at a major tournament with Belgium beaten by eventual champions France in the World Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a different prospect, cup games are different to a league.\u201d De Bruyne, who scored a stunning goal in Belgium\u2019s 2-1 World Cup quarter-final win over Brazil, says he enjoys a professional relationship with City manager Pep Guardiola.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am lucky that I like to play the way already that he implemented so it was an easier transition, more natural.\u201d<\/p>\n
De Bruyne, who unlike his former Genk team-mate Thibaut Courtois did not enjoy a successful time when he joined Chelsea in 2012 and was eventually sold to German outfit VfL Wolfsburg in 2014, concedes levity can be in short supply in Guardiola\u2019s pep talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cPep can be intense,\u201d said the 27-year-old who scored eight goals and provided 16 assists in City\u2019s title win which yielded several records including passing 100 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London Manchester City don\u2019t need to win the Champions League to be judged a success, claims Belgian star Kevin de Bruyne in an interview with the BBC. European club football\u2019s most prestigious trophy has proved elusive to City despite the hundreds of millions invested in players since Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39267,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39264\/revisions\/39267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}