“Let’s attack them!” – Kevin De Bruyne opens up on Manchester City approach against Real Madrid pre-match | OneFootball

Manchester City captain Kevin De Bruyne has opened up on the desired approach from himself and his teammates towards their UEFA Champions League clash with Real Madrid.

The Premier League champions come into Tuesday night’s clash off the back of a comeback victory over Leyton Orient in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday afternoon, teeing up a fifth round tie at home to Plymouth Argyle.

De Bruyne was introduced during the second-half of the clash against the League One outfit at Brisbane Road and made the ultimate contribution as he completed the turnaround for his side after Abdukodir Khusanov’s somewhat fortunate leveller from a Rico Lewis shot.

Attentions have very quickly refocussed for a side looking to end the season on a much higher note having experienced a torrid run of form across November and December, with the challenge of two meetings against Real Madrid in two weeks now awaiting.

Speaking to Amazon Prime Video ahead of Manchester City’s first meeting with Real Madrid this week, club captain Kevin De Bruyne said, “We know it’s a big game and I think we need to have a good performance to win against them.

“They’re top class but we’ve played against them a lot of times and we can compete against them, so we’ll try to do the same again.”

Quizzed on his own responsibilities, having excelled in matches with Los Blancos during his time with Manchester City offering mammoth goalscoring moments against the Spanish giants, De Bruyne played down such a task, “I just try to do my job.

“If I can contribute, helping, and scoring, it’s a good thing. But we need to have a good performance first, and then hopefully we can do the rest as an extra.”

But given the complications of having to face Real Madrid at home in the first of two-legs against the Spanish giants, just how will Manchester City approach the clash at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night?

“You always have to have a bit of game management but playing first at home we have to start quickly, be on the front foot and bring them into difficulties,” De Bruyne said ahead of the clash from the Etihad.

“The second-leg being away is a tough ask, but we’ll see how it goes. I think let’s attack them! Do what you always do, play our way of football!

“They have good quality in the way they play but we have different qualities to them and we have to try and impose that on the way we play and not play to their system because that’s going to be a disadvantage.”

De Bruyne is expected to start in the centre of a Manchester City midfield trio which will feature John Stones in the defensive midfield role with new signing Nico looking to recover from a lower back problem sustained in the weekend’s win at Leyton Orient.