Pellegrini hails City match winner De Bruyne

• Manchester City jubilant after Kevin De Bruyne's late clincher against Sevilla
• Manuel Pellegrini describes match winner as "the perfect player to bring in"
• Unai Emerys insists "this performance will make us better as a team"

Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City manager
We bought Kevin because we knew he is a very creative player who can score and create goals and in that respect he was the perfect player to bring to our club. It was a very close game and it was very difficult to create chances.

It was important to go into the break level and in the second half it was very hard for either side to create clear-cut opportunities, but we kept going. In the last ten minutes we made more chances to win and we eventually scored again.

We tried to make some changes, which is why we put Kevin up front with Yaya [Touré] and fortunately, between them, they created the second goal. It is important that we won this game with the derby [against Manchester United] to come on Sunday – we need to continue improving in what we are doing.

We've now won the last two Champions League games with late goals after going behind – and showed great character and concentration, which is very important in Europe. We will now forget about the Champions League and start to think about the weekend. It's important that we recover properly and try to continue winning games.

Unai Emery, Sevilla coach
We can look at the game in two ways, although logically one overshadows the other. On the plus side there is progress in the team, but the final score is a blow. We have to keep working on aspects of our play and we have to remember the things we did well.

But this was a great opportunity. We tried to do a good job here and we were capable of doing it, but we lacked that little bit extra, and we have to keep working towards achieving that little bit extra. The positive part was that we tried right till the end.

We lost possession and that set off the [winning] counterattack for City. We worked hard from minute one till minute 90. That fact they scored from a counterattack – well, you learn from your mistakes.

Kevin Gameiro rues a missed chance©AFP/Getty Images

I think we would do the same again, to try to win the game – play on the front foot, even if we do get caught. I would say it was a positive experience tonight, part of our apprenticeship as a side.

This game was a defeat, but you also need to understand what we have shown as a team. As individuals and as a group we have taken a lot of positives. I think we can be optimistic for the future but we can't get those points back unfortunately – those three points are gone.

The next game is at home, where the team normally performs to a high level. We'll have our fans behind us so I'm not going to give up [on second place] yet. We've seen what we can do today. We have competed at this level today and we could have won the game. Certainly, we've got chances to win the next game and if we do, we will be right in with a shout. We might be frustrated at the moment but we've got to be satisfied that we've discovered things about ourselves, and about how we've improved as a team. This performance will make us better as a team.