Monchengladbach vs. Manchester City: Winners and Losers from UCL Game

Joe Hart’s superb display was key to Manchester City’s narrow win in Monchengladbach.

Finally, Fabian Johnson hauled Sergio Aguero down in the final minute of normal time and the Argentine superstar dusted himself off to tuck away a hugely important spotter.

Having that same zero points total as Arsenal after two matches would have been a Champions League crisis point, but City rode it out by belatedly putting together the attacking flow that a team of such riches should be expected to produce. He got up after being chopped down and buried a nerveless spot kick.

Lars Stindl scoring in the 54th minute for the home side, which was playing European Cup football at home for the first time in 37 years, only for Nicolas Otamendi to equalize with a deflected effort in the 65th. A Nicolas Otamendi strike cannoned in off the head of the unfortunate Andreas Christensen 11 minutes later – giving the additional official an almighty reprieve for missing a flicked header crossing the line seconds earlier – and the English club dominated the remainder of the match. A fearsome foursome is all very well but if the other six outfield players are struggling, then any team will have problems.

City captain Yaya Toure failed to come out for the second-half after aggravating a leg injury the defensive midfielder had picked up in the Spurs’ defeat.

Joe Hart was the star of the show for City, saving a Raffael penalty and making two more stunning stops to deny the striker before the interval. If only his defence had been operating at the same standard when Borussia took the lead.

Hart produced superb point-blank saves from Raffael and Hermann and City breathed another sigh of relief when referee Clement Turpin gave nothing after Stindl went down in the area.

City left back Aleksandar Kolarov allowed Julian Korb ample room on the right to pick out Stindl, who swept home a low finish.

“Joe made three very important saves”, said the City boss. We have been a little bit unbalanced.

‘It was a unusual game and we did not defend well. I think they made me work from more of their chances but we still had a few really good chances. “Maybe today we didn’t deserve to win, but we won”.

“The win was important but we need to improve”. Kevin (de Bruyne) warned us about them. They deserved to be winning 1-0, but for the last 25 minutes we had a very strong reaction.

Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero is fouled for a penalty during the Champions League group D soccer match between Borussia Moenchengladbach and Manchester City in Moenchengladbach, Germany, Wednesday, September 30, 2015.