Manchester City top Gladbach on last-gasp penalty kick
Sergio Aguero scored a last-gasp penalty kick to hand Manchester City a 2-1 win on their travels to Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach.
The Argentine slotted home in the 89th minute, his 16th Champions League goal for the Citizens who record their first win of the tournament. City had leveled on 66 minutes through Nicolas Otamendi who drilled the ball into the net after Martin Demichelis' header was cleared from behind the line.
The Foals, celebrating their first home European Cup match since 1978, had taken the lead through Lars Stindl, but were frustrated by an inspired performance from Joe Hart who made several outstanding saves to keep the visitors in the game.
The two sides approached this matchday two encounter with differing results at the weekend. Gladbach have been revived after the departure of Lucien Favre, while City went down 4-1 at Tottenham and surrendered their spot at the top of the English Premier League.
Fabian Johnson was played down the wing in the third minute and managed to win a corner kick with his deflected shot. Schubert, who was previously the coach of the U23 side, kept the same basic shape which has turned around their season with wins over Augsburg and Stuttgart, their first of the league season.
Dominguez's return at center-back - the only change from Saturday's 3-1 win at Stuttgart - was a boost with the experienced Martin Stranzl still injured. But Aguero edged away from him on six minutes and would have bundled home if it wasn't for the efforts of Yann Sommer.
Raffael and Patrick Herrmann combined to wonderful effect, especially on the counterattack and the right-winger missed a good opening in the ninth minute. But Hart made the first of many game-changing contributions on 19 minutes, saving Raffael's penalty. The Brazilian striker was rashly brought down by Otamendi and decided to take the kick himself despite previous misses in domestic competition.
Less than a minute later, City broke with pace and purpose and Aguero drilled his right-foot shot across goal but wide of the target. The Argentine center-forward was a handful for Gladbach center-backs Alejandro Dominguez and Andreas Christensen, the teenager on loan from Premier League champions Chelsea.
As the half approached its last five minutes, Hart contributed again with some vital saves. On 34 minutes, Julian Korb played a killer through ball to Raffael in the channel but the forward was denied by the keeper from close range. Two minutes later, Raffael was pivotal again on the break, setting up Herrmann whose shot was blocked by England's number one keeper.
The Foals perhaps will feel aggrieved to have been awarded a second spot-kick when Lars Stindl was tackled by Fernandinho in the box. But French referee Clement Turpin booked the former Hannover captain for simulation.
Fernando replaced Yaya Toure at the break in what looked like a conservative move from Manuel Pellegrini, the Man City coach. A minute into the second period and Raffael ran down the left and his shot, heading for the corner, was excellently saved by Hart who was having his best game in some time.
But he was beaten on 54 minutes when Gladbach stretched the play intelligently, allowing right back Korb to move into space beyond the City full-back. The 23-year-old showed composure to pick out Stindl inside the box and the attacking-midfielder side-footed the ball past the Man City goalie.
Despite the lion's share of possession, Pellegrini's men struggled for cutting edge with Aguero forced into wide positions more than he will have wished. But City took advantage of Gladbach's poor defending from set-pieces this season - the Foals have conceded four times from free-kicks or corners so far.
An initial effort from Demichelis was hooked acrobatically clear by OscarWendt, but the extra officials failed to spot the ball clearly crossing the line. The rebound fell to Otamendi whose shot on target smacked against Andreas Christensen before wrong-footing Gladbach keeper Sommer.
From then onwards, City dominated possession with Gladbach running out of gas in midfield. The energetic teenager Mahmoud Dahoud was withdrawn towards the end and the Foals seemed to lose their way a bit in the final 15 minutes.
A slack challenge on Aguero with two minutes left gave City the perfect chance to take all three points. The striker dusted himself down and tucked the ball into the corner, his 15th goal in his last 15 starts for the club in Europe's premier club tournament. With the win in Germany, City bounces back from their opening matchday defeat to Juventus a fortnight ago.
