The onus is on Manchester City to come out and beat us, but we have to stay with them and if we can do that, you know you’re only a goal or a penalty away from a semi-final.
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Wilfried Bony struck early in the first half at the Etihad Stadium and Manuel Pellegrini’s Premier League leader rarely looked like surrendering its advantage before substitute Kelechi Iheanacho and De Bruyne clinched the victory with a flurry of late goals.
Youngster Kelechi Iheahacho eased City’s growing frustrations by scoring the second in the 80th minute before De Bruyne put the gloss on the victory.
He then provided the ammunition for Romelu Lukaku to head the visitors into a 2-0 lead with just 28 minutes gone – and that is the way it finished – in front of a largely shell-shocked crowd of 31,628.
De Bruyne crashed an effort onto the post from outside the area, and the Ivorian was by far the quickest to react as he pounced on the rebound to tuck home from a fairly narrow angle.
“It took our minds off it. He wanted to relax us and prevent us from getting anxious”.
Fernandinho played the ball forward to De Bruyne, whose shot beat goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic, but bounced off the inside of the post and fell conveniently into the path of Bony, who fired into the unguarded net.
Acknowledging that we had chances in the game, there was a sense for Davies that it was a closer match than the final result painted it out to be.
Bruce could point out he made 10 changes in the previous round against Leicester, in keeping with his usual policy for this competition.
“To have qualified for the Champions League next stage, to be in the semi-final, top of the league, with so many injured players is great”, he said.
“(Pablo) Zabaleta and (Vincent) Kompany are out, Joe Hart can be fit, I am not sure for Saturday but if not for Tuesday”, he added.
“Obviously everyone wants to play every game but that can not happen at this level, you have to get rotated at times and that is what happened”. We got to an FA Cup final and I’ve said all along that you should take the cups seriously, and I do, but when you’re a Championship side there’s no big gulf in the squad.
“I see him as my brother, because he has come from Africa, like me, so I give him lots of advice, on how to handle pressure”, said Bony, who scored the opening goal as the Blues booked a place in the last four.
As it was, the most disappointing part for Bruce was the way his team disintegrated after the second goal.
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A final throw of the dice in the 73rd minute by Bruce brought a standing ovation from the 5,000 travelling City fans as Robert Snodgrass made his first team return after 16 months on the sidelines.
