#1 Hit: Kevin de Bruyne
After an excellent display like this, it makes his very brief cameo in last week's first leg all the more baffling. Kevin de Bruyne, City's best player last season, has been struggling with troublesome injuries throughout this term - that much we all know.
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However, the quality and creative presence that he provides are just too integral to leave out, even if he's not necessarily at 100% fitness. It was his quick-thinking nature, inventive approach and spatial awareness which saw him become the first player since Ryan Giggs (vs Roma in 2007) to register three assists in a Champions League quarter-final. During a match of such magnitude with high stakes and pressure on City's shoulders, de Bruyne didn't flinch. He flourished.
A lot can be said for Trippier's poor positioning and failure to stick tighter to Sterling, but de Bruyne's inch-perfect pass, fizzed in low across the box, created Raheem's second goal. It's become a sort of trademark for the Belgian, whose creative capabilities are only now really being highlighted - mainly because of City's creative struggles without him. His first was from a surging run through midfield, where he found Sterling to his left and soon enough wheeled away to celebrate.
Continually marauding forward and eager to orchestrate attacks, his third typified another highlight reel performance: gliding through midfield before teeing up Aguero with a great pass, before the Argentine slammed home with aplomb at Lloris' near post. Superb display, he certainly didn't deserve to bow out of the competition.
