Raheem Sterling strikes twice as Manchester City defeat Borussia

“It’s important Manchester City grow every season”.

Moenchengladbach’s Raffael, center, celebrates after scoring during the Champions League Group D soccer match between Manchester City and Borussia Monchengladbach at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2015. City’s defence backed off and when Wendt’s cross bounced off Stindl, Raffael was on hand to turn the loose ball past Hart. But if you hope to win the title, you have to play against the big teams.

Yet Pellegrini’s fist-pumping celebrations after City’s third and fourth goals hinted just how important this win might be.

Manuel Pellegrini has made a decision to start with Raheem Sterling up front and Wilfried Bony on the bench for tonight’s game as Sergio Aguero continues to miss out through injury.

They (Gladbach) haven’t lost since they lost to us (in September) and they beat Bayern Munich (at the weekend) so it wasn’t easy. “It’s an incentive to get there again in future”.

Gladbach had beaten Bayern 3-1 on Saturday, becoming the first team to do so in the Bundesliga this season, but three days on they find themselves out of all European competition after the first defeat of coach Andre Schubert’s 13-game reign.

City played with no out-and-out striker and with Silva as a so-called “false nine” – a departure for Pellegrini, who has often deployed two strikers.

But City’s weaknesses at the back in the continued absence of captain Vincent Kompany were again evident as Monchengladbach claimed an immediate equaliser.

American midfielder Fabian Johnson ran unchallenged between Gael Clichy and Nicolas Otamendi, before squaring a ball that Julian Korb lashed home with a low finish to equalize in the 19th.

City almost leveled matters in the 60th minute but Sommer was on hand to deny Raheem sterling with a good save from point-blank range.

Four minutes later it was all over, Bony finishing at the second attempt after his initial shot was blocked by Havard Nordveit, and Hart’s save from Thorgan Hazard’s deflected shot spared the home fans an anxious final few minutes.

“But if you don’t finish at the top of this group, I don’t think it is disappointing because we have had to play twice against Juventus and we didn’t beat them”.