De Bruyne reaches 200 career goals with brace against Turkey

Kevin De Bruyne reached the 200-goal milestone in his career on Friday evening in Liège, scoring a decisive brace as Belgium defeated Turkey 3-1 in the Nations League.

At 35 years old, the Napoli midfielder opened the scoring with a perfectly placed strike in the 10th minute, before finding the far corner of Ugurcan Cakir’s goal with a shot from outside the box in the 59th. These two goals bring his tally to 41 goals in 127 caps for the Red Devils, allowing him to cross the symbolic threshold of 200 goals across all competitions. His individual record breaks down as follows: 17 goals with Genk, 10 with Werder Bremen, 20 with Wolfsbourg, 108 with Manchester City and 6 with Napoli.

Coming on in the 61st minute, Romelu Lukaku extended the lead by converting a cross from Charles De Ketelaere to score his first goal since joining Fenerbahçe. Belgium’s all-time leading goalscorer now has 94 international goals to his name.

This victory allows Mark van Bommel’s Belgium to bounce back after their defeat to France (0-1) three days earlier. With 6 points on the board, the Red Devils remain in contention behind Zinédine Zidane’s side, who lead Group 1 with 7 points. The two nations will meet again next Monday in Saint-Denis for the final group-stage match.

On the Turkish side, Arda Güler, despite some technical flashes, received a yellow card that will rule him out of his team’s final match against Italy.