De Bruyne earns Manchester City another late win
Wednesday, October 21, 2015
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Manchester City 2-1 Sevilla
The English side struck a late winner for the second UEFA Champions League game running to move three points clear of Sevilla.
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- Kevin De Bruyne nets 91st-minute winner for Manchester City
- Victory takes City three points clear of Sevilla in second, and one behind Juventus
- Yevhen Konoplyanka scores second UEFA Champions League goal of the season
- Adil Rami own goal six minutes later makes it 1-1
- The sides meet again at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán on 3 November
Kevin De Bruyne struck a 91st-minute winner to ruin Sevilla's night as Manchester City once again left it late in the UEFA Champions League.
Three weeks after Sergio Agüero's last-gasp intervention against Borussia Mönchengladbach, Belgium midfielder De Bruyne ensured a welcome repeat for the City fans as he arrowed a low shot into the bottom corner.
As in Germany, City had to come from behind after the lively Yevhen Konoplyanka had given the visitors the lead on the half-hour. Vitolo picked up De Bruyne's stray ball and broke into the City box before squaring for the Ukrainian to fire low past Joe Hart.
Sevilla had already had eight corners by then, seemingly putting behind them their slow start to the Liga campaign. Konoplyanka saw an early free-kick bounce away off the near post, with Grzegorz Krychowiak testing Hart with a low strike on the rebound. From one of a flurry of Konoplyanka corners Krychowiak failed to keep a header on target.
City, by contrast to Sevilla's domestic travails, had scored a combined 11 goals in two previous home games but for the Premier League leaders this looked like being another night where they were unable to translate their domestic effervescence to the European stage. Yet the 1-0 advantage lasted just six minutes.
There was a touch of luck about the equaliser. Yaya Touré did well to beat Timothée Kolodziejczak down by the byline and his low cross teed up Raheem Sterling, whose shot was saved by Sergio Rico. Bony turned the rebound against Adil Rami and into the net.
Sevilla, with Konoplyanka to the fore, continued to exploit space down the flanks and should have had a second goal when lively full-back Benoît Trémoulinas crossed to the unmarked Kevin Gameiro. The Frenchman nodded over, then Vicente Iborra volleyed wide from another Trémoulinas centre. How De Bruyne made them pay.
Key player: Yevhen Konoplyanka
Konoplyanka shone against Sevilla as a Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk player in May's UEFA Europa League final. He was making only his second start for his new club here and nobody had as much influence on proceedings as the pacy, intelligent Ukrainian.
De Bruyne fills Agüero's boots
De Bruyne has hit the ground running since joining City in the summer. This was his first UEFA Champions League goal for the club but fifth overall as he produced the bit of magic normally served up by Agüero on these nights.
Welcome home win for City
One of the talking points in the pre-match press conference was City's lacklustre home form in Europe. They lost their opening Group D home match against Juventus and for long spells looked second best here. Prior to this evening they had won five of their 15 home games in the UEFA Champions League since 2011 and it is not hard to see where they must improve if they are to enjoy a long run in the competition. They will hope this last-gasp triumph marks a step in the right direction.