‘Every game will be special’ - Kevin De Bruyne braced for huge Man City fixtures after international break

Kevin De Bruyne is anticipating a ‘hard’ and ‘special’ end to the season with Manchester City after they return from the international break.

The Sky Blues’ FA Cup victory over Southampton was the last game they’ll play for 13 days due to the hiatus in the club football season, and City return with a Premier League encounter against Burnley on 2 April.

That will be the first of eight fixtures next month, before the season wraps up in May. City, of course, are still in the running for three trophies and are first in the Premier League, face Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley, and will play Atletico Madrid over two legs in the last eight of the Champions League.

It’s for that reason De Bruyne is expecting a tough month when the team return after the two-week break, and he is delighted City can still claim the treble this season.

“We want to win every game, that’s our aim at the beginning of every season,” said the Belgian. “We couldn’t make it in the Carabao Cup, but we are alive in the other three competitions.

“It’s going to be so hard after the international break. Every game will be very special and we are going to try and do it [win the three trophies]. We always want to win trophies, so we always like to be in these stages of all competitions.

“We always enjoy playing at Wembley, sometimes we win, sometimes we don’t,” he added. “But just the fact of being there season after season shows the determination and the quality of this team.

“Even if sometimes we didn’t win there, we have always been there and we fought for the games. That in itself is a small success as a team. Once we are there [Wembley] we want to win it again.”

City continued their impressive FA Cup record under Pep Guardiola when they beat Southampton 4-1 on Sunday.

That means, for the fifth time in six years managing in England, the Catalan has progressed to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, although only won has he ultimately won the trophy.

“We have always been there [in the FA Cup semi-final],” De Bruyne said after the victory at St Mary’s. “We have played semi-finals every season with Pep Guardiola except one.

“We have always showed up and played well, but there has always been a strong team in front of us and we have lost. That can happen in football. We love this competition and we are so happy to be back to Wembley.”