Manchester City 4-2 Mönchengladbach
Birthday boy Raheem Sterling scored on 80 and 81 minutes to turn the game and leave City top of Group D with Mönchengladbach bottom.
Manchester City come from behind for win that gives them Group D first place
Mönchengladbach lead 2-1 at half-time despite conding first
Birthday boy Raheem Sterling scoredon 80 and 81 minutes before Wilifried Bony clincher
Mönchengladbach end fourth behind Sevilla
In a dramatic finish in Manchester, Raheem Sterling – on his 21st birthday – scored twice and substitute Wilfried Bony once in a six-minute spell for a City side who had been trailing until the 80th minute. As a result they can look forward to going into the round of 16 as group winners for the first time.Manchester City came from behind to beat Borussia Mönchengladbach and snatch first place in UEFA Champions League Group D from Juventus.
For Gladbach, who had led 2-1 through goals from Korb and Raffael it was a bitter blow as they slipped from third place in the group to fourth, below Sevilla who beat Juventus 1-0, the result that allowed City to overtake the Italian champions.
City, with Sergio Agüero injured and Bony left on the bench, began without a conventional central striker. Instead they had David Silva in the false nine role, supported out wide by Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne.Silva it was who opened the scoring after Sterling released him with a cute backheel and the Spaniard, cutting in from the left side of the box, flashed a shot high past Yann Sommer at his near post.
Gladbach had briefly raised the hopes of their 3,000 noisy travelling supporters early on when Korb had a sight of goal but shot over. Those fans were celebrating within three minutes of City scoring, though as Fabian Johnson burst down the left and played a ball across the penalty box, Lars Stindl letting it run on to Korb arrowed a first-time shot into the bottom corner of Joe Hart's goal.
With half-time approaching, Gladbach owed thanks to full-back Nico Elvedi for a terrific interception that stopped Sterling reaching a dangerous Delph ball across goal cross. Instead Gladbach struck at the other end. Oscar Wendt played the ball in and Fabian Johnson took a shot which Raffael diverted past Hart from close range.
©AFP/Getty ImagesRaheem Sterling celebrates
Sterling led the recovery in the second half. He failed to beat Sommer from point-blank range when Elvedi chested the ball into his path, and then drew a flying save from Sommer with a smart volleyed attempt after 68 minutes. Eventually though the goals came.
First he stabbed in from a Clichy cross and then minutes later curled in superbly from the edge of the box after being played in Bony. Bony then completed the turnaround as the home fans erupted in celebration.
It used to be Manchester United who made a habit of late winners in this competition. Now it is their neighbours. City secured three of their four victories in the last ten minutes so whoever they face in the next round should be warned.
Whoever City face in the last 16, they will want to tighten up defensively having finished the group stage without a single clean sheet. Indeed with eight goals conceded, they have the leakiest defence of the eight group winners and will want to have Vincent Kompany available when the competition resumes after Christmas.
For Gladbach this was the end of a 12-match unbeaten run – and brought an unhappy end to their first UEFA Champions League campaign. They had looked dangerous counterattacking in the first half but sat back and were unable to hold out in the second. Ultimately what really cost them third place, though, was their poor start – losing their opening two games left them with a mountain to climb in such a competitive section.
Reaction:
Manuel Pellegrini, City coach
The hard work I think we did before, the two games before we won the group. It is not so easy to qualify from the group. After that it was important to finish in the top spot in the group and we did it.
It is a relief in the sense we saw in the second half again the team we normally try to play, that have good possession, we created options, and we didn't give too many options to the other team. It is a good achievement for the whole group to be in all the competitions.
André Schubert, Mönchengladbach coach
I think we played very well in the first half and played well going forward. In the first half we lost the ball a couple of times and that produced chances for the opposition, and the second half was the same. At the start of the second half, once or twice we lost possession and that allowed the pressure to build up and we couldn't get relief from that, and we were pressed back by the opposition.
The game wasn't so open then and I think my team, they had been very intense the last few weeks, they lost a bit of strength, and Andreas Christensen had a knock before the game and Fabian Johnson had to come off injured. We just weren't able to make it up today.
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