Manchester City showed great will and determination to come back from behind and register their first win of this Champions League campaign. Pellegrini’s men emerged victorious against German side Borussia Monchengladbach with a 2-1 victory, thanks to a late penalty from Sergio Aguero and a splendid display by goalkeeper Joe Hart. .
City left it late as Sergio Aguero calmly slotted home a penalty in the final stages, as the Premier League side bounced back from defeat by Juventus on Match Day 1.
Lars Stindl put the Germans ahead, side-footing the ball perfectly from 15 yards before Nicolas Otamendi volleyed in the equaliser for City. Both Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach had lost their opening group games against Juventus and Sevilla respectively.
Juventus are sitting pretty at the summit of group D after a 2-0 win against Sevilla in Turin.
Joe Hart, the pivotal figure.
Hart made a few brilliant saves in the match, including a penalty stop in the first half. The Englishman was at his best throughout.
As City fans were excited about their fabulous front four starting together for the first time, Hart stole the show with his stunning display and the manager was quick to praise his goalkeeper.
Pelligrini said, “Joe Hart made brilliant saves but we also had chances that we didn’t score. Maybe after 65 minutes, Borussia could have been winning 3-2, or it could have been 3-3 or 4-4. There were so many chances. It was a strange game. With 65 minutes played, both teams had chances to score. After that, we really dominated and made chances.
“They played better than us, especially defensively because we didn’t defend well but after that, we had a strong reaction for the last 30 minutes and finally we won the game. I must say Borussia played very, very well.
“We knew before the game theya re a very fast team and theya re able to recover metres between midfield and their box.”
Joe Hart admitted that this was far from City’s best performance, but in the end the perseverance paid off.
“We didn’t play well today,” said Hart. “We were really disjointed. Today, like in the past couple of Premier League games, we had a good half and a bad half.
“I think we deserved to win. They made more of their chances, making me work, but we had some really good chances, too.
“They’ve got some good movement – Kevin De Bruyne warned us about them. They’ve a very fit team and if anything, they work themselves into the ground.
“We profited when they were a little bit tired at the end. They made a few mistakes and we kept our quality.”