City's Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic both misfired in the shootout to put Madrid in the driving seat
Salah is the league's top scorer with 22 goals, while he also has 13 assists. De Bruyne is fourth on the goal-scoring list with 15 and the Belgian international has seven assists.
Both Salah and De Bruyne have won the award before, in the 2017-18 and 2019-20 seasons respectively.
City defender Ruben Dias won the award last season.