- Joe Hart saves penalty; Monchengladbach have second penalty appeal turned down
- Yaya Toure taken off at half time with injury
- Monchengladbach take the lead early in the second half but City equalise and push for the win
- Sergio Aguero wins and converts last minute penalty to earn victory
Manuel Pellegrini was relieved that his injury-hit Manchester City side had negotiated a potentially tricky Champions League tie with help from some great saves by Joe Hart to provide a platform for a recovery after Monchengladbach had taken the lead early in the second half through Lars Stindl.
Nicolas Otamendi scored his first City goal to level the scores and Sergio Aguero’s last minute penalty won the game.
He said: “We just had to win. I think that Borussia Mochengladbach played very well, especially in the first 65 minutes.
“They had important options and Joe made very good saves.
“I watched all the games that they played, especially their last two games.
“We talked with the players before the game. They had very good players to cover the distance between the midline and our box very fast.
“In the first half especially they had an important advantage.”
City’s lengthy injury list forced the Chilean to risk two of his injured stars in the must-win game in Yaya Toure and David Silva, with Pellegrini once again filling out the City bench with youngsters George Evans, Brandon Barker and Pablo Maffeo.
He said: “Yaya wasn’t 100% fit from the beginning, I had some doubts if he could play or not. He wanted to play but I thought that 45 minutes was the maximum he could do.”
“It was the same with David. The last 15 days he didn’t work so 60 minutes was enough for him also.”
Manchester City were looking at yet another frustrating night in the Champions League until their Sergio Aguero was tripped by Fabian Johnson in the last minute of an enthralling match to earn a deserved penalty.
The misfiring Argentine had been guilty of some glaring misses recently since his return from injury including some tonight but sidefooted his spot kick past Yann Sommer in the Monchengladbach goal to seal victory.
Manuel Pellegrini, who had endured his own rush back home to collect the correct passport with ten minutes to spare, found that injuries dictated his selection once again.
Gael Clichy, Eliaquim Managala, Fabian Delph, Samir Nasri and Wilfriend Bony were still unavailable but the biggest miss for City was captain Vincent Kompany.
Kompany had been in fine form for City until he went off during the Juventus game with the scores at 1-1 and by the end of tonight’s game City had conceded 9 goals in just over 4 games.
His replacement, new signing Nicolas Otamendi gave away an early penalty tonight, fouling Brazilian striker Raffael in the 18th minute but Joe Hart produced a brilliant save to his right to deny the Germans the lead.
Hart could have provided Aguero with a huge clearance from that chance to send the Argentine clear but he couldn’t beat Yann Sommer.
City’s English goalkeeper was in inspired form and had to be to deny Raffael and Monchengladbach the lead but he couldn’t keep the home side out forever.
Aleksandar Kolarov was caught out of position in the second half and Julian Korb cut the ball back to Lar Stindl whose strike went in off the post in the 54th minute.
Martin Demichelis’ 65th minute chance from Fernandinho’s header might have levelled the scores but it was cleared off the line with City appealing for the goal when Otamendi sent the rebound back in to make sure.
City had already made changes with an unfit Yaya Toure going off at half time and David Silva made way to allow Jesus Navas the last 25 minutes.
Their replacements, Fernando and Navas shored things up and provided a better platform for City to attack.
Navas provided a late chance for Raheem Sterling with a dangerous cross which the English winger headed over before Aguero earned and converted his penalty in the last minute to score only his third goal of the season.