Late improvement crucial to City's Gladbach win
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Article summary
Manuel Pellegrini acknowledged Manchester City "did not defend well" at Borussia Mönchengladbach but believed their improvement in the final 30 minutes was decisive.
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- Manuel Pellegrini relieved after Manchester City prevail in "strange game"
- City come from behind at Mönchengladbach; Pellegrini grateful for change of fortune
- André Schubert blames "lack of focus" for concession of 90th-minute penalty
André Schubert, Mönchengladbach coach
We are very disappointed. We worked very hard but we were playing against a top European team. The penalty against us in the last minute was also down to a lack of focus.
Of course we are mainly disappointed, because we did not get any points from today, but I am nevertheless very proud of my team. We invested a huge amount in the game and we were able to show a lot of what we wanted to show on the pitch.
We defended very well and, at the same time, were always able to hurt them a bit going forward. Even in the first half we could have taken the lead. After the break, City put us under a lot of pressure with their great quality. My boys nevertheless put up fantastic resistance and would have deserved a draw at the least. Our performance was a really strong one, which is why the result is a very bitter one.
Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City manager
It was a strange game. With 65 minutes played, both teams had chances to score. After that, we really dominated and made chances.
They played better than us, especially defensively because we didn't defend well, but after that we had a strong reaction for the last 30 minutes and finally we won the game. I must say Borussia played very, very well.
We knew before the game that they're a very fast team and they're able to close up the space between the midfield and their penalty area.
Joe Hart made brilliant saves but we also had chances that we didn't take. Maybe after 65 minutes, Borussia could have been winning 3-2, or it could have been 3-3 or 4-4. There were so many chances.
We got a bit of luck at the end but we have had plenty of bad luck recently. Against Juventus and West Ham we didn't deserve to lose and maybe today, we didn't deserve to win but we did.