It's heaven for Kevin De Bruyne - Manchester City leave it very late to secure vital win

Kevin De Bruyne wheels away in delight after scoring Manchester City's winner

KEVIN DE BRUYNE conjured a crucial last-gasp winner to boost Manchester City’s Champions League hopes and send his team-mates into Sunday’s derby with United on a high.

 

City faced dropping more points at the Etihad before De Bruyne, who had been pushed forward into attack by manager Manuel Pellegrini, scored in added time. The hard-fought victory over Sevilla leaves Pellegrini’s side in second place in Group D, just a point behind leaders Juventus.

“It was very important for Kevin to score,” said Pellegrini. “We tried to make some changes because we weren’t arriving in their box, or creating chances, which is why we put Kevin up front with Yaya Toure and fortunately we produced the goal.

“When we bought Kevin in the summer we thought he was a very creative player. He has goals in him and because this team always tries to play attractive and offensive football, you need good players for that.

“In all senses he was the perfect player to arrive to our team.

“When you win it is very important for the players because it is always good to arrive into a big game like the derby winning.

“They are different competitions but of course when you win in the last minute it gives you more trust in what you are doing. The most important thing is that the team showed character not to give up in the last minute. It is good to arrive into a big game with a win.

“We need to keep improving on what we are doing. The Champions League is a very tight group.”

City needed a last-gasp goal to overcome Borussia Moenchengladbach by a similar scoreline in their second game and De Bruyne is now targeting a victory in Spain in a fortnight to take a huge step towards the knock-out stages.

“Even though we did not have our best game we tried to look for the victory and in the end we did score,” he said.

“We have a team to attack and we will try to get the three points in Sevilla too.” Pellegrini defended his decision to keep captain Vincent Kompany on the bench until the final seconds.

The defender had defied his manager’s wishes by playing for Belgium last week when he had been injured and was left out of the starting line-up last night.

An animated Manuel Pellegrini on the touchline

Pellegrini said: “I think that Nicolas Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala are playing very well. They both played well against Bournemouth and Newcastle, we won 5-1 and 6-1. Vincent is coming back from a long injury after a month out, so it was a risk to give him this responsibility in an important game.

“Every game and every week I try to pick the team that I think in this moment are ready or better to play.”