John Stones has moved to praise one Manchester City teammate for a moment of ‘quality’ in the draw with Liverpool.
After all that build-up it’s over but at least it delivered all that it promised. Manchester City and Liverpool played out a barnstormer of a match on Sunday.
It was a fittingly chaotic and gripping match to bring an end to such an era-defining rivalry between Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.
John Stones gave City a first-half lead when he converted a corner but Liverpool fought back through an Alexis Mac Allister penalty.
Both sides had plenty of chances to win the thrilling match but it ended all square and blasted the Premier League title race wide open.
Goal-scorer Stones has moved to praise Kevin De Bruyne in particular for his excellent cross into the box to set up his goal.
It was a smartly worked corner from City as the 32-year-old sent a low cross into the near post and Stones admits it was one straight from the training ground.
John Stones praises Kevin De Bruyne
Speaking to City’s in-house media, Stones said: “Straight from the training ground.
“Big credit to the guys who put the set pieces together and Kevin [De Bruyne] for the quality of putting it in there.
“They put their ideas across to us and we worked on it in training yesterday and it came off which was great.
“I’m happy and pleased I got on the scoresheet.
“I’ve been trying hard to contribute up the other end of the pitch and it’s nice for me – a first one of the
season and hopefully I can get some more now.”
A frustrating game for De Bruyne
De Bruyne may have added yet another assist to his tally – he’s now on 13 in just 14 games – but it wasn’t a great afternoon for him.
The £54m man was largely well-marshalled by Liverpool so wasn’t as influential as he usually is and gave the ball away an unusually high amount.
So much so Guardiola was forced to take him off with 20 minutes remaining to try and wrestle back control of the match. Something he wasn’t happy about.
Mateo Kovacic was his replacement and the Croatian did exactly what was needed, as his composure in possession stemmed the Liverpool tide.
It was probably Kovacic’s best performance since signing for City in the summer and the most he has ever looked like the man he was brought in to replace, Ilkay Gundogan.
Hopefully, he can keep it up and De Bruyne will soon be back to his best.
