Manchester City performance has been affected by the absence of KDB in the squad as it has been in their games despite having a very solid team one of the best team in the world but their position in the EPL and their game play says it all because the impact of KDB has been lacking in the team. Manchester City has managed to get to the round of 16 in the UCL I think they can still struggle to win games in the UCL even without the presence of KDB but the team will be in better shape and there will be more distribution of passes and more chances will be created if KDB should return from injury, hopefully he's going to be in the squad soon because City performance in the EPL has dropped so much.
Indeed, in several previous matches, they had lost their balance in the Premier League this season, but this has been corrected by Pep Guardiola in several previous matches. Where Manchester City has been able to record 3 wins in the last 5 matches, which has made them able to stick closely to the teams at the top of the rankings. So, in the Champions League, Manchester City also performed quite impressively because they were able to qualify for the round of 16 with the status of group winners. So Kevin de Bruyne absence in the team can be covered by other players this season and they did not experience major problems in the Champions League because they were able to qualify for the round of 16 as group winners.
Apart from that, Kevin De Bruyne is reported to have recovered from injury and it is even reported that he will soon join the team in the Premier League match against Newcastle United. In my opinion, Manchester City are quite the favorites to become champions in the Champions League this season because their strength is so solid and they also have a coach who is able to deliver trophies to them.