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Man City did not watch Liverpool beat Southampton, admits Kevin de Bruyne

The Belgian says Manchester City are so focused on themselves they did not bother to watch Liverpool's 3-1 win over Southampton on Friday night

Jack Pitt-Brooke
Monday 08 April 2019 11:32 BST
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Winning quadruple is almost impossible says Pep Guardiola

Manchester City are so focused on themselves that Kevin De Bruyne did not even watch Liverpool beat Southampton in the Premier League on Friday night.

Liverpool went back to the top of the league with their 3-1 win but City will still win the title if they win all six of their remaining league games. This means that the title is still in City’s hands and the message from all players and staff is that they are only thinking about themselves, not Liverpool, as they try to complete the job.

City beat Brighton in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday evening and De Bruyne, speaking afterwards, confirmed that he had not watched the league game the previous evening from St Mary’s. “I didn’t watch it,” De Bruyne said. We cannot do anything about it, they won, they were probably expected to win. So that’s it.”

City are still competing to win an unprecedented quadruple: they have a Champions League quarter-final against Tottenham on Tuesday night, and of course an FA Cup final once the league season is over. De Bruyne said it was not in their minds to win it yet, they just have to take each game as it comes.

“There’s no point thinking about it,” he said. “You know how heavy the schedule is? I think people underestimate how the fixtures come that quickly. You can’t think about it. We don’t even have time to have a rest ourselves, so how can we think about what’s going to happen in four weeks? we’re just going to play Tuesday and then hopefully play a good game.”

City visit Tottenham on Tuesday night 

Tuesday’s game will be the second game ever held at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but De Bruyne does not think the stadium will be a factor. “I don’t think there will be any difference,” he said. “They’ll probably be a little bit more excited but in the end it’s a stadium with supporters. If they go to Wembley with 80,000 or there with 62,000, it’s going to be the same. It’ll be a tough game but I think we’ll be all right.”

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