A dramatic late penalty has given Manchester City their first win of the Champions League campaign as they defeated Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 in Germany.
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“It was a odd game“, said the Chilean coach.
Manchester City will face Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League on Wednesday night in what is surely a must win game for City if they stand any real chance of progressing to the knock out stages this season.
This will be Gladbach’s first home game at this level for 37 years, having reached the final of the old European Cup in 1977, beaten by Liverpool, and this is the first time Champions League football has been played at Borussia Park. We were really disjointed and have been in the last couple of games in the Premier League that we’ve lost. But all the games we lost before – against Juventus, West Ham and Tottenham – I don’t think we deserved to lose.
In contrast, Schubert has pulled Gladbach off the bottom of the Bundesliga table with two wins since stepping in after Lucien Favre’s shock resignation following five straight league defeats and a 3-0 trouncing at Sevilla in their opening Champions League game.
Manchester United and City were made to work hard for 2-1 wins against German clubs Wolfsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach respectively, 24 hours after Chelsea and Arsenal had both crashed to defeats.
But for a string of superb saves from England goalkeeper Hart ” including thwarting Raffael from the penalty spot ” City would have been behind long before Lars Stindl’s stylish 54th-minute opener.
Given Juve’s impressive start, it suggests that City and Sevilla may well be competing for second spot in the group, and that undoubtedly adds further intrigue to their clashes.
Sergio Aguero continued to be a threat for Monchengladbach’s defence while goalkeeper Joe Hart’s saves denied Raffael’s and Patrick Herrmann’s efforts before the break.
It seemed City were again suffering on the continent and David Silva, on his return from a calf injury, was withdrawn just after the hour. “We had a bit of luck to win the game”.
Hart was brilliant throughout as Monchengladbach, rejuvenated under interim coach Andre Schubert after a dismal start to the season, showed as much attacking intent as City.
City have stars like Wilfried Bony, Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala out injured but with stars like Kevin De Bruyne, Sergio Agüero and Raheem Sterling always in the mood it would be foolish to get too carried away by absentees of their recent slump.
“They are a team with a lot of experience in Europe”, Otamendi said. “The performance of Joe was very important for us”.
Stindl put Gladbach ahead when Julian Korb s pass found him unmarked in the area and his shot wrong-footed Hart on 54 minutes.
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“In the last 30 minutes we improved a lot and finally we won“.
