Pep Guardiola steered his Manchester City side to a deserved victory against former club Barcelona on Tuesday night, with the Citizens coming from a goal down to beat the Spanish giants 3-1 at the Etihad.
Star of the show for the hosts was Kevin De Bruyne, with the Belgian topping off a fine display in midfield with a magnificent free-kick.
Lionel Messi had finished off a superb counter-attacking move from Barcelona on 21 minutes. However, Ilkay Gundogan once again got himself on the scoresheet to level the scores just before half-time.
Not long after the re-start, City won a free-kick in a dangerous position outside the Barca box. De Bruyne then stepped up to thump a sweet free-kick which arrowed past Marc-Andre ter Stegen into the back of the visitors’ net…
.@DeBruyneKev lights up the Etihad! What a free-kick. 👏👏👏 #UCL #MCIFCB https://t.co/2qPgava7QV
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) November 1, 2016
CLASS: Fan footage of Kevin De Bruyne’s free-kick against Barcelona…
Via: @AsifBurhan pic.twitter.com/L2PHpsjeir
— BenchWarmers (@BeWarmers) November 1, 2016
That cracking effort lit up the Etihad and on 74 minutes, Gundogan struck again to secure a fabulous watershed win for City against the might Barca.
The result sees Guardiola’s charges in second place in Group C, with a win against BMG in November needed to secure a place in the last 16 for the Premier League side.
After a rocky patch, City look well and truly back on track!
(Table: BBC)