Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has been named in the WhoScored Euro 2020 team of the group stage, despite only featuring in half of the round.
De Bruyne suffered a broken eye socket injury during the UEFA Champions League final defeat to Chelsea, which caused him to miss the opening game of the tournament for Belgium, as they beat Russia 3-0.
He was left on the bench for the second game too, only for manager Roberto Martinez to call on him at half-time as the Red Devils trailed Denmark 1-0 at half-time. The superstar playmaker, who turns 30 next week, got himself an assist for the equaliser before smashing home the winner from outside the box.
With Belgium already qualified, De Bruyne was given the chance to get some more match sharpness in the final game of the round against Finland. He set up Romelu Lukaku for what Belgium thought was the opening goal only for VAR to rule it out, before delivering the corner that led to Lukas Hradecky's unfortunate own goal.
De Bruyne did finally get his assist for Lukaku with nine minutes to go as Belgium secured top spot in Group B.
WhoScored named their team of the group stages on their website and De Bruyne was one of only two Premier League stars in the team, enjoying a better rating than any other player. .
He occupied a midfield slot alongside the Netherlands' Frenkie De Jong and behind the former Manchester United forward duo of Cristiano Ronaldo and Memphis Depay, with his 8.8 rating far superior to that of second best Ronaldo on 8.1.
De Bruyne's two assists have him in joint-second for most assists in the tournament so far alongside another five players, while only Denmark's Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Switzerland's Steven Zuber have more with three each.
Belgium will now prepare for a round of 16 clash against Portugal on Sunday June 27th in Budapest, with the winner setting themselves up for a quarter-final clash against the winner of Italy's game with Austria.
