Kevin De Bruyne is determined to deliver Champions League qualification as his parting gift to Manchester City.
The Belgium playmaker sparked a stunning City comeback as the champions rallied from 2-0 down at the Etihad Stadium to thrash Crystal Palace 5-2 in the Premier League on Saturday.
The long-serving 33-year-old, who scored City’s first goal with an exquisite free-kick, was playing his first home match since it was announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season.
City’s victory lifted them back into fourth place in what is a tight battle for the top-five places.
De Bruyne told the BBC: “I think it was important to score as quickly as possible and change the feeling of the game a bit. I didn’t think we were playing that bad but the scoreline wasn’t good at all. We went from there.
“I want to go away with a Champions League (place) for this team because they deserve it.
“We’ve been in the Champions League for the nine, 10 years that I’ve been here so I hope we can do that for the team next year and I’ll just try to play good football like I’ve always done.”
Palace took early control with goals from Eberechi Eze and Chris Richards inside the opening 21 minutes but De Bruyne’s set-piece changed the momentum.
De Bruyne then had a hand in goals for Omar Marmoush and Mateo Kovacic before James McAtee and Nico O’Reilly completed the scoring.
City manager Pep Guardiola said: “The performance of Kevin – as he has done for many, many years in many, many games – he played fantastic. He helped us to break this momentum that was not good.
“The gratitude we have, I have, to him is huge. He’s done incredible and I know that he can deliver.
“Today he was fouled but with the ball he was so clever and, with the goals and assists, he helped a lot to win that game.
“From 2-0 down it was not easy but we stuck with the plan. We now have six games left and we need points to qualify for the Champions League, so this has been massively important.”
Palace boss Oliver Glasner was disappointed that his team were unable to press home their advantage after taking early control.
He said: “It’s disappointing, especially when you have the lead by two goals. It was a great start and we had a third disallowed and a big chance for Ismaila (Sarr).
“But our defence was not good enough and made too many mistakes. Then when you give a team like City so many chances they just score. We have to learn and I think we will.”
The sides could come face to face again in the FA Cup final.
Glasner said: “I said to Pep afterwards if we meet again you can’t play in this system because we will solve it!”
