De Bruyne: I played 2023 Real Madrid semi-final on pure emotion | OneFootball

Kevin De Bruyne has revealed the circumstances behind his emotional celebration to his equaliser at Real Madrid on our run to the 2022/23 Champions League trophy.

The Belgian hammered in the equaliser at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg before running away, falling to his knees and pointing to the sky.

It was one of the standout moments in a decade-long career at City littered with spectacular contributions.

He then had a major role to play the following week as we thrashed the defending European champions at the Etihad to seal our place in the final in Istanbul.

Speaking in his farewell interview before leaving City this summer, De Bruyne has confirmed the personal struggles that were affecting his family during a pivotal point in that historic campaign.

“It’s probably one of the best weeks and the worst that I’d ever had in my life,” he said.

“I remember we played on the Tuesday and my wife’s grandfather, who was really close to us, was dealing with cancer.

“Obviously he was not really good and I think a lot of people already said goodbye. I was basically the only one who didn’t say goodbye so on Sunday I flew to Belgium to say goodbye.

“He was in really bad pain, then on Monday I had to fly here, train in the morning, then fly to Madrid and then on the Monday evening he died.

“It was a really emotional time, then obviously the next Sunday I had to go before the other Madrid game on Sunday or Monday to attend the funeral.

WATCH: Real Madrid 1-1 City: Champions League highlights

“Then at the time of his funeral my grandmother died so I had to drive five hours to say goodbye to her, it was an absolute mess.

“I just played on pure emotion, no sleep.

“There’s that clip where I got angry with Pep in the Madrid game because I was all over the place.

“I did what I had to do to play football.”

After progressing through that tie, City lifted the Premier League and FA Cup trophies to leave us 90 minutes from a Treble.

A nervy night at the Ataturk Stadium followed but Rodri’s second-half finish proved the difference between City and Inter as we sealed our maiden Champions League triumph.

Having come close on several occasions, De Bruyne says relief was his overriding emotion at the final whistle.

WATCH: City 1-0 Inter: Extended Champions League final highlights

“My first thought was finally,” he said.

“I think we played so many good games in the Champions League and there’s been a lot of moments where we thought ‘how is it possible, losing on away goals or last-minute goals?’

“To be honest, I think we deserved it.

“I know the Inter game wasn’t a great game, but I think if you see all of the rest of the games we played so, so well.”

City had been to the final two years prior to that, succumbing 1-0 to Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea.

There had also been devastating exits at the semi-final and quarter-final stages earlier in De Bruyne’s time at City.

Despite that level of consistency, the Belgian insists we couldn’t have claimed to have deserved the trophy until victory in that 2023 final.

“Yeah, but that’s football,” he said when asked if it would have felt cruel not to have won the famous trophy during his time at City.

“I think when we lost against Chelsea, we were better than them but in 90 minutes people can find a way and teams find a way to beat another team.

“Sometimes you have to accept it, even though it’s not nice, but at least we got one.”