Pep Guardiola allays De Bruyne injury fears after Man City beat Bayern Munich

Pep Guardiola has confirmed his decision to take off Kevin De Bruyne in Manchester City's 3-0 win over Bayern Munich was a tactical one.

De Bruyne started the match at the Etihad Stadium, and looked lively in the first half as City took the lead thanks to a stunning long-range strike from Rodri.

However, he appeared to hurt his knee stretching for the ball by the touchline in the second half and required treatment off the pitch. He was then slow to get back to his feet a few moments later when he was knocked off the ball, and was substituted shortly afterwards, with Julian Alvarez replacing him.

De Bruyne could not hide his frustration as he came off, although it was initially unclear as to whether he was annoyed at being injured or if he wanted to stay on. Guardiola's post-match comments suggested it was the latter.

'Tactical decision. Julian for him,' Guardiola explained when asked why he made the change.

'I saw the performance and took the decision, in that moment we needed extra energy from Julian. I am here to take the decisions and it is my biggest quality.'

Guardiola's decision proved to be the perfect call as City scored two quickfire goals shortly after De Bruyne went off.

Erling Haaland set up Bernardo Silva to double City's advantage and the hosts made it three when Haaland got on the end of John Stones' knock-down.

Alvarez also almost scored off the bench, but his dipping effort from 25 yards just went the wrong side of the post.

De Bruyne may not have been happy to go off, but Guardiola was vindicated by City extending their lead, and the Spanish coach now has more big selection calls to make with the games coming thick and fast for City.

Guardiola's men are back in action on Saturday against relegation-threatened Leicester, before travelling to Munich next Wednesday for the return leg as they look to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals.