De Bruyne impersonates Haaland with 4-goal burst, ‘Zen’ pose
The Hindu
Kevin de Bruyne scored four in a 5-1 rout of Wolverhampton to maintain Manchester City’s Premier League title charge
With his four-goal burst and the "Zen" celebration, Kevin de Bruyne did his best impersonation of a future Manchester City teammate.
Erling Haaland is joining City next season as one of the most sought-after strikers in world football and even he would be hard-pressed to produce the kind of finishing demonstrated by Kevin de Bruyne in a 5-1 rout of Wolverhampton to maintain City's Premier League title charge on Wednesday.
After the Belgium midfielder completed his hat trick—his first for City—by the 24th minute, he celebrated with the "Zen" pose made famous by Haaland in recent years at Borussia Dortmund.
De Bruyne said it wasn't necessarily a nod to Haaland—"I just did it because I'd scored three," he said—but they already appear to be on the same wavelength. That is for the future, though.
The short term is all about retaining the title, and City restored its three-point lead over Liverpool with the win at Molineux. Pep Guardiola's team needs four points from its final two games—against West Ham and Aston Villa—to guarantee first place but its superior goal difference of 7 might mean three points is now enough.
City might be running out of defenders, however, after Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho—a midfielder who filled in at center back—came off with what Guardiola described as "problems." Center backs Ruben Dias and John Stones as well as right back Kyle Walker are already out for the rest of the season because of injury.
Guardiola does, though, have Kevin de Bruyne in sublime form.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.