Omar Marmoush, Bernardo Silva and Nico scored in our final home match of the season to inspire a crucial 3-1 Premier League victory over Bournemouth, in a perfect Etihad send off for Club legend Kevin De Bruyne.
A packed Etihad scattered with special banners gave De Bruyne a hero’s welcome as he led the team out for a final time in Manchester, and it took the Blues just 14 minutes to race into the lead.
Marmoush collected the ball from Mateo Kovacic and unleashed a thunderous strike from 30 yards, which crashed into the net off the inside of the post for his eighth strike in across all competitions in sky blue.
MATCH REPORT: CITY 3-1 BOURNEMOUTH
Two quick chances followed in succession, first for Erling Haaland, whose acrobatic effort at the back post from De Bruyne’s delivery was saved by Kepa, before De Bruyne himself was set up superbly by Marmoush, but with the goal gaping, directed his left-footed effort onto the crossbar from six yards.
Shortly after the half-hour mark, the Cherries almost levelled as Marcus Tavernier crossed for Evanilson, who stretched and poked onto the post. Five minutes later, we doubled the lead through Bernardo Silva, who cleverly finished at the near post after a clever pass from Ilkay Gundogan.
With just over 20 minutes left to play, City were reduced to ten men after Kovacic was sent off for pulling Evanlison down when he was on course to race through on goal from.
The red meant Pep Guardiola made a slight adjustment, replacing the departing De Bruyne with Nico, with the entire Etihad Stadium standing and applauding our brilliant Belgian off the pitch in Manchester for the final time.
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A few minutes later, the visitors were also down to ten players after Lewis Cook was given his marching orders for a high challenge on Nico.
The Etihad faithful rose to their feet again in applause and cheers in the final ten minutes of the game, as our Ballon d’Or winner Rodri made his first appearance since September following an ACL injury.
Nico curled home an impressive third, before Daniel Jebbison pulled a late goal back for the Cherries, but we claimed three points to propel us up to third in the table, two points ahead of Newcastle, Chelsea and Aston Villa with one match left to play.
View the best images from our final home match of the 2024/25 campaign via our gallery below.