Rasmus Højlund said he was grateful to be on the same team as Kevin De Bruyne after the on-loan Manchester United striker scored twice off assists from the former Manchester City midfielder in Napoli's 2-1 win over Sporting CP.
De Bruyne's perfectly placed through ball set up Højlund's opener for Napoli in Wednesday's Champions League clash. After Colombian forward Luis Suárez equalised from the penalty spot, De Bruyne then also provided the cross for Højlund's header that restored Napoli's advantage in the second half.
"Kevin is a legend of the sport," Højlund said. "For me, it's just every time he has the ball, go find some space. I'm so grateful to play with a player like this."
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Napoli's second goal was similar to many goals that De Bruyne set up for Erling Haaland during his trophy-laden years with Man City.
"They're quite similar," De Bruyne said of Haaland and Højlund. "Erling is Erling and what he's done in his career is unbelievable. They both like to attack the space. Erling probably a little bit more. Rasmus wants to come [meet the ball] sometimes."
While Højlund struggled to find the net in two seasons at Man United following a big-money transfer from Atalanta, he has now scored three goals in five appearances since his loan move to Napoli.
It also continued an impressive record in the Champions League for the Danish international, who now has scored seven goals in eight appearances in Europe's top competition.
De Bruyne, meanwhile, now has 27 career assists in the Champions League, as he moved past Zinedine Zidane and Andres Iniesta into fifth place on the all-time list for midfielders, trailing only Ryan Giggs (41), Ángel Di María (38), David Beckham (36) and Xavi (31).
The Belgium international has now scored or assisted five goals in seven games since joining Serie A champions Napoli in June after 10 seasons at City.
Wednesday's performance was also the perfect response to some controversy over his reaction to a weekend substitution.
De Bruyne didn't hide his dismay when he was taken off during a loss at AC Milan on Sunday, which prompted coach Antonio Conte to warn, "I hope he was irritated at the result. Because if he was irritated about something else, he's dealing with the wrong person."
But Conte said on Tuesday that he and De Bruyne had cleared things up and the former Manchester City standout certainly looked like he had his head clear against Sporting.
"There was never any problem. I'm a winner. I want to play football. I want to make the difference," De Bruyne said. "Everything has been said. There's no issue."
Two minutes after Napoli's second goal and with nine minutes remaining, the 34-year-old De Bruyne was replaced by Billy Gilmour without any issues -- to a standing ovation in his first European match at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.