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| Manchester City had Joe Hart to thank after winning 2-1 in Germany |
RELIEVED Manuel Pellegrini hailed "brilliant" Joe Hart for sparing Manchester City more Champions League misery here last night.
England goalkeeper Hart saved a first half penalty and made three other outstanding saves as City came from behind to beat Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 thanks to Nicolas Otamendi's first goal for the club and Sergio Aguero's last minute penalty - his 15th goal in 15 starts for the club in the competition.
Pellegrini admitted City had ridden their luck at times saying: "It was a strange game! For 65 minutes both teams had very good chances to score, we did not defend well. In the last half hour we improved a lot and won the game.
"We knew that Borussia have a very fast team and Joe made some brilliant saves. It could have been 4-4 after an hour but then we dominated the game.
"We got a little bit of luck at the end but we have had plenty of bad luck recently."
Hart, who evoked memories of his Euro heroics against Barcelona last season and Borussia Dortmund in 2011, said: "For the penalty, no stone is unturned. I've seen a lot of penalties from a lot of players - we have good guys in the analysis department. We always take the scenic route in Europe!"
"We didn't play well, we were disjointed as we had been in the last few games. But we deserved to win, we had some really good chances. It may have come late but Sergio is a cool guy and he will score.
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| Sergio Aguero celebrates scoring the last minute winner |
"Kevin de Bruyne warned us about them [Monchengladbach], they have some good movement and work themselves into the ground. We won and it puts us in a good position."
A worry for City is that Yay Toure came off at half-time after going into the game not totally recovered from a hamstring injury.
The win puts City joint second in Group D with Seville on three points with a double header against the Spanish club coming up. Juventus are top with maximum points after two games
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| Manuel Pellegrini hailed Joe Hart's performance |
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